Should govt make TGEC’s report on education reforms public?

Hyderabad: Should the state government and the Telangana School Education Department (TGSED) make public the recommendations from the Telangana Education Commission’s (TGEC) report regarding school education reforms?

The selective disclosures from the TGEC report suggest the establishment of Telangana Foundation Schools (TFS) in every mandal, catering to students from Nursery to Class II. This raises concerns about the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in early childhood education, particularly given that the potential adverse impacts on children’s cognitive development are still being researched at various levels.

How does the TGEC propose to integrate AI into early childhood education? Which experts did the TGEC or TGSED consult regarding this issue? The specifics of AI integration and the extent of children’s exposure to it remain unclear.

It may be noted that a balanced exposure to digital and AI technologies can benefit students in early education by enhancing their language development and learning experiences. However, researchers have pointed out several adverse impacts, indicating that unsupervised and excessive exposure to digital technologies can negatively affect the development of motor skills in children.

The use of AI-assisted learning tools and chatbots in early education raises concerns about cognitive and social development. Addiction to these tools may lead to children becoming more self-centred individuals.

Furthermore, unless children have certain medical conditions, they possess an innate ability to interact with their surroundings from a 360-degree perspective, helping them develop multiple viewpoints. However, exposure to an over-stimulated digital environment can impair their attention spans and cognitive functions. Another major concern is that existing algorithms in AI systems can reinforce inequalities and biases, potentially having long-term effects on children’s cognitive development.

If the tools provided limit access to diverse perspectives, it can negatively impact critical thinking. Additionally, the mandatory learning of English from an early age alongside digital technologies and AI tools may encourage binary thinking in children, leading to a loss of their diverse cultural and linguistic heritage.

For example, if a child learns the Telugu word “Kurchondi,” meaning “Please! Sit,” through bilingual education with its English equivalent, they are exposed to two distinct linguistic worlds.

Conversely, a child studying in a Telugu medium would easily recognise the phoneme in the Kannada word “Kulitukolli,” which also means “Kurchondi.” Both words share the same English meaning: “Please! Sit.” Experts assert that Telugu and Kannada have co-evolved for centuries, sharing a similar phonemic structure with many consonants and vowels, including aspirated consonants and fricatives borrowed from Sanskrit. This linguistic similarity facilitates language learning between speakers of these two South Indian economic powerhouses: Telangana and Karnataka.

Thus, early exposure to English through mandatory learning could diminish the cultural connectivity that Telugu shares with other languages, which also includes a significant amount of common vocabulary and cultural ties.