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Ed-tech is the delusion of the moment. In a situation where less than half the children pass high school, more than half the seats in professional colleges are empty, and fewer than 1 in 10 graduates is employable, we tell ourselves that technology is going to help change this !!
Just because something is theoretically possible, doesn't mean it will turn out that way. Remember our earlier delusions - self-sufficiency, demographic dividend, liberalisation, etc.? These are all theories we told ourselves, and fooled no one.
For a policy direction to work, it must be open to scrutiny and judgment based on data, by professionals in the field and by citizens themselves. We don't do this. Instead, we give policies and initiatives sanctity by putting the government's seal on them. That guarantees swa-ha.
The irony is that we don't even change the actors in this old movie. The same people who sell us one round of delusion simply move on to the next one when the first one turns out to be a dud. The endless supply of delusions only serves to keep out what is really needed.
The 'education sector' - if one can call it that - needs diversity of delivery, acceptance by markets for employment, and independent regulation of both private and public institutions. But none of this is ever put on the table, much less considered.
Daft notions of ed-tech have thrived because such tech providers have made common cause with the government. They are in the business of digitising failure. This allows the govt to sell digitisation as its great innovation, and even markets dutifully worship the same thing.
Until we get comfortable with assessing ideas & initiatives on merit, rather than judging them by the heft of the govts backing them or the private capital funding them, there is simply no chance of any path to development resulting from them. That's a basic lesson, tech or not.
We have to begin by asking, 'what will improve learning?' and stop asking 'what will improve education?'. The two are not the same. And of the two, employers will pay only for learning. We have to begin by acknowledging this, and regularly judging our interventions this way.
