A country with more than 25 million out of school children, ranking second in the world is fretting to face more challenges due to COVID-19 outbreak. The school closures and disrupted education from the mid of March 2020 has created a situation where all children are out of school.
This situation not only impact the children’s education, but it also increased the risks of child labour, exposure to child abuse and home violence, mental health issues and limited access to social interactions.
According to recent report by UNICEF,2020 children are the biggest victim of this universal crises (COVID-19) and this impact will be lifelong. The socio-economic state and monetary conditions are also one of the reasons for accessing school learning while staying at home.
Especially developing countries like Pakistan which is under economic crises due to multifold reasons and an outrageous cut is being observed on education budget 2020.
Now the question arises, if these left overs, 25 million children with majority of
marginalized including street children, children of nomads, children at labour, abused children, minority children and children with disabilities will remain left and invisible during COVID-19 crises management? What will be their fate for inclusion in educational planning? Is there any hope for these children to be in schools when even those children are now not attending schools who were in schools before March 2020? These few questions only address one side of the whole scenario. There are many other to think about; for example, what will be the role of policy makers? How teachers will update them to deal with this novel situation? What programs will be offered by teacher education institutes to prepare teachers for online teaching and e-learning? How curriculum developers and educational boards will make adaptations in course contents and assessment to make it effective for remote learning?
Although, these questions seem difficult to have reasonable answers that may satisfy the thirst of those unfortunate 25 million children who have been waiting since long to enjoy the equal rights of being a child and a learner at school. However, the efforts of government and nongovernment organizations are still fraught and continued to combat the situations. According to latest Global Monitoring Report 2020, inclusive education has been identified as the most common national education strategy in many countries to deal the issues of Access, Learning, Equality, Quality and Financing. Even Pakistan has shown a great progress for inclusive education during last two decades. However, this progress is being monitored more on advocacy and planning. The notable steps towards this purpose are being signatory to international treaties; i.e. United Nations Convection on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities 2006, Sustainable Development goals 2015 and active partnership with international organization like UNICEF and UNESCO in working on the agenda of inclusive education.
At national level, recent educational and other social service policies included the component of inclusion and accessibility. The non-governmental, minority watch, transgender communities and disabled population organizations are also playing vital role in self advocacy.
Even school education and higher education departments at federal and provincial levels are initiating small scale projects to reach out and include these marginalized groups. However, these efforts are still demanding more promising attitudes towards the implementation of true inclusion.
The other hard fact after outbreak of COVID-19 is that it has transformed the concept of schooling and learning over the globe from face-to-face (direct) learning to online (distance) learning. This swift shift mounted the educational institutes with many challenges of teaching and learning.
Moreover, the international organizations felt their responsibility and were more active to respond in this case of emergency. For example the Education 2030 Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action states and requires countries to “provide alternative modes of learning and education for children and adolescents who are not in school at both the primary and secondary levels, and put in place equivalency and bridging programs, recognized and accredited by the state, to ensure flexible learning in both formal and non-formal settings, including in emergency situations”. So, the affected countries and attached organizations considered it as a case of emergency and promised for some alternative modes for possible equitable education.
This changing paradigm of learning demands a new or alternative approach towards Inclusive education. This alternative approach is known as e-inclusion. Although, e-inclusion is not a very recent term but is most desirable and considered to be solution as pandemic pedagogy. E-inclusion was officially coined in policy discourse in a European Union Ministerial Declaration signed in Riga on 11 June 2006. In this Declaration e-inclusion (with ‘e’ standing for electronic) is defined
as: “both inclusive Information and Communication Technologies and the use of ICT to achieve wider inclusion objectives. It focuses on participation of all individuals and communities in all aspects of the information society. inclusion policy therefore, aims at reducing gaps in ICT usage and promoting the use of ICT to overcome exclusion, and improve economic performance, employment opportunities, quality of life, social participation and cohesion (European Commission, 2006, p.1).
Digital access is one of the essential components for making e-inclusion possible. However, Pakistan is far away in achieving the target of Digital Pakistan. According to the recent Global Digital 2019 Report by Hootsuite and We are social, about 154.3 million (76%) of the total 202.7 population are mobile subscripters. However, only 44.61 million (22%) are active Users for internet among these mobile users. The comparative analysis shows that digital access in Pakistan is less than average global access. The report further elaborated the usage of various devices by citizens i.e. 82% of the population have mobile phone, 31% have smart phone, only 10% population have access to computer/laptop and 1% uses tablet and wearable devices.
The comparative analysis of this data indicate that use of mobile is not the indicator of digital accessibility as more than 80% population uses mobile but only 44% among these have access to internet. Although Government of Pakistan is serious to improve digital uplifting in the country with many new initiatives. Launch of Digital Pakistan Policy 2019 is a clear motive for the wellbeing of citizens by empowering them with accessible, affordable, reliable, universal and innovative ICT services. the provision of equal access for all learners and to plan services through information and communication technologies regardless of ability, age, gender, ethnicity, or economic capacity. The policy objectives are clear on inclusion and notes as “Bridge the digital divide including the urban and rural divide, gender disparity, unserved and underserved areas, inequality for the person with disabilities, by connecting the unconnected with broadband (Digital Pakistan Policy, 2019, p.6).
The writer can be reached at: afaf.manzoor@yahoo.com
