There is almost no debate now that digital education is the norm for the future. However, we also know that tablets cannot replace teachers, but only complement them. A super-power aspiring India is staring at a future generation of employment-unfit workers lacking in basic communication, arithmetic and cognitive skills. India lacks quality teachers and Digital India programme, which currently is more inclined to disbursing tablets and technology in public schools, will fail if it ignores the most critical cog in the wheel – teachers. 

Empowering teachers

What we need today is digital technologies tailored around teachers to enhance pedagogies and ensure uniform quality of teaching across the country. So the key lies in using digital platforms and solutions to deliver secure and quality content and, more importantly, provide access to quality teachers. Online learning platforms have, till date, failed to make an impact on India’s educational conditions, primarily because they are mostly just digitized textbooks and course content. What we need today is all-inclusive platforms that can connect all the dots – deliver good quality content in a secure environment, channelise communication and collaboration between students and teachers and more importantly provide tools for teachers to improve teaching methods. Also, using digital technologies would mean that teachers would need to develop key skills themselves, like acquiring technical expertise, ability to create quality course materials and develop skills to make learning more engaging.

Institute’s role

There is a major role that can be played by the education institutes in making an effort to empower the teachers. Indian government runs various programs to strengthen the entire education system from the roots by providing advanced training to the teacher. Institutes should make sure that they should make their teacher make a beneficiary of such program and not to keep them uptight with the errands of the institute. To help them better they can also ensconce on school management softwares to validate a teacher’s time for the commitment of improving the educational standard of the country.