Against the order making tabs mandatory for teachers

Date: February 5, 2019 

To

The Education Minister

Department of Education

Delhi Government

Sub: Against the order making tabs mandatory for teachers

Sir

Lok Shikshak Manch wishes to register its objection against the order making tabs mandatory for all the teachers of Delhi government schools. A recent order of the Education Department of Delhi Government has made it compulsory for every teacher to buy a tab worth Rs. 15,000. As per the circular dated 07.01.19, 'All referred teachers are supposed to buy the tablet and submit bill by 15.01.2019 failing which no re-imbursement be made and action as deemed fit will be initiated against the defaulting teachers', that is if a teacher does not buy the tab till January 15, 2019 then s/he will not be compensated for the same. Although it is not clear whether the money will be deducted from her/his salary if s/he doesn’t buy the tab or will s/he be punished or penalised in some other way.

Here are some questions and concerns related to enforcing the mandatory purchase of tab and its use in education –

Making purchase of any item compulsory is unconstitutional

What goods we buy from the market is not determined solely by whether we have money or not. It also depends on what our values and requirements are as a consumer. Department of Education has not provided any substantial reasons related to the tab's requirement, so it is only appropriate to raise questions regarding its need. Buying any item is a complex and conscious act. It is a question of one’s personal, environmental-economic-political principles and understanding, whether one wants to become a consumer of companies which are selling these products or not. Therefore, it seems unconstitutional to force anyone to buy anything. Even if the item of purchase is not a personal property, such as tabs to be used in school in this case, the thought process, psychological exercise and labour entailed in the act of buying something are not bereft of consciousness. Therefore, no teacher can be penalized for not buying a tab. Also, to start the practice of meting out money-related punishments in the world of education is an indicator of intellectual impoverishment.

However, even if the Delhi government itself buys and gives tabs to its teachers, following objections and concerns will still remain -

Another link in increasing the burden of non-academic work. 

We have seen that in the name of digitization and e-governance, work in schools has been unnecessarily increased, duplicated and has made rectifying human mistakes tedious and difficult. The digitization of admissions, results, bank account details, Aadhaar number, demand of voter ID, data of daily progress of Mission Buniyaad, etc. had already put excessive pressure on teachers, but making the tab mandatory seems like a plot to turn us teachers into full-time data entry operators. Our experience has shown that digitization has neither reduced non-academic work, nor has it made the teaching process more free or smooth. In fact, this enforcement of digitization has deprived children of their rights by making the process of claiming them more arduous.

When data entry already happens on school computers and computer labs are being developed for the use of information and communication technology in teaching, then under what requirement are tabs being given to each and every teacher? What are the shortcomings of the present system to compensate for which crores of public money are being spent on this device?

Danger of dilution of education

If attendance of students, evaluation of homework, lesson plans, the assessment of teaching and teachers and every activity of the school would have to be entered into the tab, then one cannot rule out the possibility that tomorrow teachers will be forced to make lesson plans or homework assignments which suit the format of software already fed into the computers. This will definitely bring down the quality of education and the academic autonomy of teachers. This trend will denude each subject of its distinctive character thereby making it vacuous. For example, any software created to examine the teaching and evaluation of language, Maths, Social Science, Science, etc. will be incapable of grasping their complexities, which will result in teachers being forced to mould their teaching according to certain computerized standard points.

Not only this, the essential use of tabs will send a misleading message to the students that mechanization in teaching is a sign of quality. This will strengthen uninformed faith towards technological devices in young generation. Flooding the schools with technological instruments in the name of development may produce a false sense of quality but this will distract teaching from the objectives of intellectual depth and autonomy. This compulsion will also obstruct the development of a feeling of judicious and rational use of resources as an individual and collective responsibility.

The Question of teachers' autonomy

Teaching has always involved the use of materials ranging from basic ones like chalk and blackboard to various audio-video devices. In fact, as teachers, we have been using instruments like laptops and computers at our own level for our classes and students, according to our plans and needs. But compulsorily enforcing the use of a technological tool like the tab is significantly different. As long as we teachers are free to use these tools as per our academic need and professional understanding, these instruments are of aid to us; however, if their use is fixed in a pre-conceived manner and made compulsory, this relationship will be reversed, and we will be turned into agents serving these instruments. It is certainly anti-educational to subject the intellectual and professional understanding of teachers to such centralized orders and programs of the tools of private companies. We can already see that efforts are being made to continuously centralize activities which take place in the classroom. Forcible use of devices such as tabs increases the risk of micro-surveillance of teachers and the controlling of their every activity manifold.

Are there any pedagogical researches that provide a basis for the enforcement of mechanical devices like tabs?

There must be concrete reasons for making anything mandatory. Reasons that should not just be related to the knowledge of that subject matter but also be legally valid. Since technological tools such as tabs are capable of bringing fundamental changes in the character of education and teaching, we would like to know the academic and policy documents on the basis of which this decision has been made. By virtue of our professional educational preparation and our responsibility towards society, we teachers are intellectual beings and not mechanical executioners of orders. It is indispensable for us to understand and examine the justification of such orders, which are not derived from any established pedagogical foundation.

Although the market is trying to charm us into looking at ever new incarnations of technology as Messiah, we are aware that for decades questions have been raised about technology in many parts of the world. Marketised technology which is sold as a panacea for our problems not only creates new and more dangerous problems, but it is like a never-ending ritual which demands the sacrifice of fresher resources. It is obvious that these technological tools are not being introduced for the betterment of education or to meet the needs of teachers. So, whose interests are going to be served by the enforcement of this digitization?

Analysis of data in the hands of private entities

The pressure for data is increasing day by day. A complex process like education is being broken into smaller parts, made to be transformed into numbers or grades and is being sought as data. It is quite possible that filling data on the tab will be easy, but the question troubling us is who needs this data, whose demand is increasing day by day, hour by hour, in the first place. Certainly, so far, we have not seen this growing production of data benefitting children's lives or education. What instead is true is that in this commercial era of omnipresent data we and our students have been reduced to mere data.

Who are those people and organizations that are analyzing this data? What is their political and academic status? Is there any guarantee that this data will not be used by private entities for advancing their petty interests by proving mischievously that the public education system is useless? 

The anti-environmental dimensions of electronic instruments are not merely a part of the general knowledge today, but our curriculum itself demands of us that we alert our students and enlighten them to its dangers. Textbooks of various subjects ranging from languages to environmental science, economics, history and political science inspire us to struggle with the questions of a balanced and beautiful life and the wisdom and social system required for moving towards it. Teaching for us, is not a blank, formal process, nor do we maintain a merely business-like relationship with our students. Therefore, it is not without reason that before buying a phone/smart-phone/laptop/tab etc teachers find themselves perturbed by the thought of the environmental harm associated with these products.