The Future of Education, Accelerated

The Covid-19 infection has taken the world by surprise. Human culture is not accustomed to the idea of exponential growth. As a physicist looking for an example to illustrate the power of exponential growth, my mind turns to the chain reaction (which is another name for exponential growth) in nuclear physics. The awesome destructive power released in the explosion of a nuclear warhead is also the result of exponential growth. Just as the nuclear explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki ushered in a new world order, the explosion of Covid-19 in the virosphere is also threatening to usher in a new world order. As a nation, we must be equal to the challenge of facing this new order whatever it may turn out to be.

As an educator, it has been my view for a long time that the future of education lies in harnessing the power of the internet. Many world-class educational institutions, such as MIT, have already invested heavily in online education. With the Covid-19 crisis amongst us, we can see that this is no longer just speculation about the future but a necessary condition for survival in this age of social distancing.

After the initial closure of all educational institutions in Bangladesh in mid-March, the University Grants Commission (UGC) on March 24 instructed all the universities to move onto online education. That directive, when it was issued, was seen as a bold and visionary move.

That different universities adopted different strategies to tackle the unprecedented problem of bringing the Spring semester to a satisfactory closure is completely understandable as different universities have different needs. At Brac University, when it became clear that the sudden move to online classes was causing widespread anxiety amongst the students, it was decided, after up to four online classes per course, that we would award grades to students based on the work that has already been assigned and turned in. It must be noted that by then, up to 60-65 percent of the final grade had been accounted for in most courses across the university. So, stopping the online courses did not hugely diminish the term's learning. The fact that the student body didn't have the same uniform level of access to the internet also factored into the decision of not holding finals. 

At Brac University, we were told to be considerate to the situation while grading students, and as such, we were in the middle of devising a clever system by which the grading would reward the students who have been working hard during the semester as well as give the benefit of the doubt to those students who were hoping to catch up in the final exams. The VC had appointed a steering committee that would collate ideas from around the university and finalise a fair and uniform grading system through a consultative process. (Disclosure: I am a member of this committee.)

Similar lines of reasoning were used at IUB to reach the decision to assign grades based on work that has already been turned in.

The decision to award grades based on work already turned in was not taken in a vacuum. We, teachers, don't take decisions about grading students lightly. We are fully aware that the grades we assign shape the future of our students as well as the reputations of our institutions. Thus many of us looked at how the best educational institutions around the world were dealing with this issue. Harvard University, for example, decided to go for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grades. Cambridge University, on the other hand, decided to assign numerical grades but decided not to assign classes.

Reading through the Harvard Crimson or other online student magazines of these world-famous institutions, it becomes clear that no single grading system is going to be satisfactory to every student for the simple reason that when the semester started, each student had signed up for a system of grades which assumed that the world was in a certain state and, midway through the semester, we suddenly found ourselves in the throes of the birth of a new world order. The best we can do, under these uncertain times, is to minimise the damage to our student body as a whole. But one thing is clear from talking to every student and also reading the press reports of interviews with students around the world and also in Bangladesh: that they are anxious that this will delay their education. In other words, the show must go on.

The UGC's second press release stating that in the absence of finals some students will not get an opportunity to improve their grades is unethical and so no grades must be assigned is a specious argument at best. It misses the big picture and the huge uncertainties that the education sector is facing. The UGC statement also lacks any coherence as not only did they forbid the private universities from assigning grades without holding finals, they also forbade them to hold final exams online.

Also, faced with a completely uncertain future, many of the private universities decided to adopt a policy of foregoing admission tests for student intake for the Summer semester. The UGC has also taken issue with this decision. But like the decision of assigning grades, not only was this decision taken within the legal framework of the Private Universities Act, it was also taken with the wellbeing of the students in mind. With the coronavirus threatening to spread far and wide in the country, it would be completely irresponsible (not to say unethical) for any university to hold traditional admission tests.

We have already witnessed several fiascos over the last month involving the closure and reopening of businesses that led to mass exoduses of people, raising the fear of a massive spread of the infection. If the UGC were worried that the intake of fresh undergrads might lead to analogous debacles in the educational sector, then it should have worked closely with the private universities to come up with guidelines to ensure that that doesn't happen. Instead, when asked why the UGC didn't take these decisions in consultation with the VCs of the private universities, the UGC made the astonishing statement that it is not mandatory for them to speak to stakeholders before taking a decision. But shutting down the possibilities of new intake raises the spectre of session jams and financial ruin.

As someone who entered the public university system at the fag end of the Ershad dictatorship, I know and have suffered first-hand the irreparable damage that session jams unleash onto the academic lives of students. Furthermore, private universities operate as providers of higher education premised on a revenue model which is generated through student fees, and not on government grants and endowments. So without the possibility of continuing their educational activities online or in some other shape and form, many of these universities will find it difficult to survive. If that were to happen, what will happen to the thousands upon thousands of students who are already enrolled in these schools? What will happen to the thousands of academics who have dedicated their lives to educating the future generations of Bangladesh? Unlike the case of the RMG sector, the government of Bangladesh has not announced a generous package for the private universities to weather through any tough times, nor is it likely this will happen. From a purely financial point of view, public universities can afford to go into session jams as their staff salaries are underwritten by the government. But that is not the case for private universities. This confusing and short-sighted directive by the UGC threatens to shut down an entire thriving sector of our economy and jeopardise the continued learning of many.

The argument that has been given by the UGC is that the challenge right now is to survive (tike thaka) and that we can deal with all these challenges once normalcy returns. But again, this is a fallacious and invalid argument.

First of all, as the above discussion shows, if the private universities are not allowed to take immediate actions to ensure an organised way of bringing the current semester to a close and if they are not allowed to take actions for the intake of new students, many of the universities won't survive this crisis (tike thaka jabe na). What would be unfortunate about that is the universities will fail not because of Covid-19 but because of a lack of leadership shown by the UGC.

The second problem with the UGC's proposed "strategy" is that we have no clue as to when normalcy will return. Not only that, normalcy, as we know it, may never return. To say that the education of our next generation must be paused may befit a dictatorial regime such as the Ershad government but it is not the kind of "bold" and "visionary" diktat we expect from a government which prides itself on building a "Digital Bangladesh".

Thus it is our earnest request to the UGC to allow the private universities to operate their business in an ethical and transparent manner, taking advantage of the digital infrastructure that is already in place in Bangladesh and also working closely with all the universities to develop new ways of reaching out to students so that the business of educating our young may continue in the new reality that is emerging in front of us.

Our future depends on it.

Tibra Ali is a professor at the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of Brac University.