In this final episode of our first season, Edward Vickers talks to Prof. Lin Tzu-Bin of National Taiwan Normal University’s College of Education about one of the most ambitious - and contentious - education policies to be introduced in Taiwan in recent years: the Bilingual Education Policy. Introduced by the current administration of the Democratic Progressive Party (民進黨 or DPP) in 2018, the policy aims to transform Taiwan into a ‘Bilingual Nation’ by 2030. Positioning himself as a constructive critic, Professor Lin has become one of Taiwan’s leading public commentators on this bilingual education initiative. In this conversation, he and Ed begin by discussing the politics behind the push for bilingualism, as well as the wider debate over language education in Taiwan. As with so much else in Taiwanese culture and public life, issues of identity and of the island’s relationship with China loom large. Singapore, where Prof. Lin recorded this interview, has frequently been invoked as a model by Taiwanese advocates of bilingualism. But for reasons he and Ed go on to discuss, the Singaporean experience is hard to replicate in the very different context of Taiwan. The declared aim of achieving a bilingual society by 2030 is also unlikely to be achieved, and the setting of such a goal, Lin argues, reflects the political dynamics driving support for this policy within the DPP rather than a sober assessment of educational reality. Nonetheless, Lin acknowledges the appeal of bilingualism to parents, students and Taiwanese society as a whole. He declares himself a supporter of bilingualism as a long-term goal or aspiration, but seeks to set out a practicable road-map for achieving this. In doing so, he emphasises the importance of building the capacity of Taiwanese teachers to use a Mandarin-English hybrid approach for teaching various schools subject. The use of native-speaking English teachers can make a useful contribution to the teaching of English itself, but does not in his view constitute a magic bullet for speedily achieving bilingualism across the school curriculum. This conversation illustrates how the politics of English as a global language intersects with the fraught politics of identity in the Taiwanese context. These issues of identity and language politics are ones to which we will return in future episodes of the podcast. Suggested readings: Edward Vickers and Lin Tzu-Bin (2022). ‘Introduction: Education, Identity and Development in Contemporary Taiwan’, International Journal of Taiwan Studies. 5, 1, p. 5-18 Lin, T.-B. (2021). Bilingual Education: 20 Lessons. Taipei: Parenting. 林子斌 (2021)。雙語教育：破除考科思維的20堂雙語課。親子天下。 Lin, T.-B. (Ed.). (2023). Bilingual Education: The Implementing Experience of the FERTILE Model in Taiwanese Schools. HigherEd Book. 林子斌（主編）（2023）。雙語教育：沃土模式在臺灣教學現場之實踐經驗。高等教育出版社。 Haruna Kasai (2022) Taiwanese multiculturalism and the political appropriation of new immigrants’ languages, Comparative Education, 58:4, 509-525, DOI: 10.1080/03050068.2022.2099657

The War Heritage Podcast is produced by Tim Winter and colleagues in the WARMAP partnership. A podcast about war and culture in Southeast Asia, it was produced with funding from the UNESCO Jakarta Office. Over the past two decades, Asia has undergone a war memory book, and as the gravity of power in the region shifts away from America and Japan, the legacy of World War II has become a source of acute political tension. Listeners to the Asian Education Podcast are invited to join Tim Winter, Mark Frost, Toyah Horman, Daniel Schumacher and Edward Vickers for a series of discussions about the challenges of safeguarding heritage in the aftermath of conflict and mass violence, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia. See and read more at http://www.warheritage.info/podcast Of particular relevance to education are Episodes 8 and 9, hosted by Edward Vickers. Episode 8 deals with ‘The Difficulties of Conflict-related Intangible Heritage’. Heritage by definition tends to be regarded as intrinsically positive and worthy of preservation. But is this always the case, especially when the heritage in question relates to past conflict? In this episode, Edward Vickers and guests discuss various 'difficult' aspects of intangible cultural heritage in Southeast Asia, from issues of gendered violence to the contested legacies of colonialism. Episode 9, on ‘Vectors of Intangible Cultural Heritage’, looks more closely at the role of education in transmitting or reshaping memories, practices and traditions. Any consideration of intangible cultural heritage needs to take account of how stories, memories, traditions or rituals are transformed, reinterpreted or lost through the passage of time. This episode focuses on the importance of formal education and, in particular, of language to this process of intergenerational transmission. In conversation with Kirsty Sword Gusmao, Helen Ting and Mark Maca, Edward Vickers debates the role of language as a form of superordinate intangible cultural heritage. Suggested further reading: Trina Supit (2021). Rebuilding the Education Sector in East Timor during UNTAET: International Collaboration and Timorese Agency. New York and London: Routledge. Paul Morris, Naoko Shimazu and Edward Vickers (eds) (2013). Imagining Japan in Post-war East Asia: Identity politics, schooling and popular culture. New York and London: Routledge. Mark Frost, Daniel Schumacher and Edward Vickers (eds) (2019).* Remembering Asia’s World War Two*. New York and London: Routledge.

Shadow education, in the form of examination-preparatory tutorial schooling, is pervasive across much of Asia. The costs in terms of family finances, the narrowing of educational focus and the ex-hausting competitiveness of examination cramming for the youngsters involved have aroused much scholarly commentary. But can shadow education take benign as well as malign forms? And how can regulation help in this respect? In this episode, Edward Vickers discusses these and related questions with Professor Zhang Wei of East China Normal University in Shanghai. An eminent expert on shadow education, Prof. Zhang has published widely on various aspects of this phenomenon both in the Chinese context and with com-parative reference to other societies in Asia, Europe and worldwide. Zhang Wei has recently published a new book, The Wild Horse of Shadow Education, that looks comparatively at efforts to regulate the sector in various societies - a focus prompted in part by the re-cent efforts of the Chinese government to clamp down on for-profit tutorial schooling. Shadow education has long been especially entrenched and widespread in the societies of East Asia. Zhang Wei and Edward discuss some of the reasons for this, with specific reference to the examples of Cambodia, Japan, China - and, for comparison, to Denmark. Turning to China, they note that the private tutoring industry there expanded enormously from the 1990s until the clampdown of 2021. They explore the reasons for this rapid expansion, and discuss some of the peculiarities of the sector as it developed in the Chinese context. Attempts have been made to regulate shadow education in various societies at various times. Some years ago, South Korea's government attempted a draconian clampdown on the private tutoring sector, but failed to quash demand. Zhang Wei observes that, in the Chinese context as well, addressing the challenge of moderating demand for tutorial schooling will be crucial to the success of efforts to ‘tame’ the sector. Attempting to limit or regulate supply will not, on its own, quash demand - but merely divert it into other channels (or even further into the ‘shadows’). With this in mind, Wei and Ed discuss the Chinese government’s 'two reductions' policy, introduced in 2021, which effectively sought to ban for-profit private tutoring overnight. They reflect on what prompted this move, and how successful has it been - or is likely to be. In her book, Zhang Wei argues that 'shadow education is here to stay' and emphasises the importance of considering shadow education and regular schooling ‘together’. But she also acknowledges the central importance of socio-economic insecurity and factors such as labour market rigidity to the in-tensity of demand for shadow education. Getting to grips with this phenomenon will thus require looking not just at aspects of the education system, but at the wider socio-economic and institutional context. Suggested readings: Zhang Wei (2023). Taming the Wild Horse of Shadow Education: The Global Expansion of Private Tutoring and Regulatory Responses. London and New York: Routledge (open access). Le Lin (2022). The Fruits of Opportunism. Chicago University Press.

In this episode, Edward Vickers talks to Professor Fazal Rizvi of the University of Melbourne about his recent involvement in recent education reform initiatives in the Kingdom of Bhutan. Famous internationally for its espousal of the ‘Gross Happiness Index’ in place of the conventional notion of GDP, Bhutan is otherwise relatively little understood or researched by outsiders (in part due to stringent controls on access for tourism or leisure travel). But in 2021, Professor Rizvi was invited by counterparts in Bhutan to advise or consult on reforms being pursued by the government there. In this interview, he reflects on his experience so far. Fazal and Edward begin by discussing how Bhutanese understandings of ‘happiness’ may be somewhat more complex than is often appreciated by those familiar with the GHI. They then review the education reform agenda as enunciated by the King in his 2021 ‘Kasho’ elaborated subsequently by the Prime Minister in 2021, noting its broad scope and ostensibly rather conventional concern with ‘skills’ and employability (understandable in the context of Bhutan’s chronic youth unemployment). The Bhutanese Government regards reform as both necessary and urgent. But to understand the context out of which the drive for reform has emerged, Fazal emphasizes the need to understand the history of Bhutan’s education system. The character of the system has been profoundly influenced by the involvement of Indian educators, but by comparison with most parts of India it has been ‘spectacularly’ successful. Since the 1970s, access to schooling has expanded rapidly, resulting in comparatively high levels of basic literacy and numeracy today (almost universal amongst younger Bhutanese). What has enabled this educational success, in a country that has remained relatively impoverished and isolated? Part of this story involves the geopolitical strategic position of Bhutan, wedged between India and China along their Himalayan border. This helps explain the willingness of the Indian government to offer various forms of support to its small neighbour. Despite the considerable success of educational development in Bhutan (or perhaps because of it), the government in recent years has been seeking to promote ‘innovation’, in particular through the establishment of a new, experimental school, the Royal Academy of Bhutan. Created in 2013 under the leadership of the Indian educational reformer, Arun Kapur, the Academy has now been in existence for 10 years. Adopting a ‘baccalaureate’ approach to curriculum and development, Kapur has sought to depart from the conventional, narrowly examination-focused approach that typifies schooling in Bhutan as in India. Central to the initiative is a focus of education on five areas of development, not only cerebral but also physical, social, emotional and spiritual, in an attempt to grounds educational practice in Bhutan’s cultural traditions. Fazal explains the vision behind this reforming ‘pilot project’, and the way it has been enacted at the Royal Academy. He notes how the initial pilot was declared a success, but that problems have arisen in relation to attempts to ‘transition’ the experiment to a wider range of schools. Fazal himself was approached in 2021 precisely to advise on this matter. Crucial here are limitations of resources, personnel and training, which make it difficult to replicate the Royal Academy model in schools across Bhutan, or at least affect the speed with which this can be done. The reform project is ongoing, and its ultimate outcome remains unclear, but while recognizing the difficulties involved in ‘scaling up’ an innovative model of this kind, Prof. Rizvi sees the development of the Bhutan Baccalaureate by the Royal Academy itself as an impressive achievement. Recommended readings: Kuenzang Gyeltshen and Sonam Zangmo (2020). ‘School Education in Bhutan: Policy, Current Status and Challenges’, in P. M. Sarangapani, R. Pappu (eds.), Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia, (Global Education Systems). Singapore: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3309-5_12-1 The Drup Gyalpo (2021). ‘Royal Kasho on Education Reform’, The Bhutanese. Thimpu. February 6. Karma Choden (2022). ‘Overview and Transformation of Education in Bhutan’, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, December 12.

In March 2023, Edward Vickers recorded an interview with Professor Krishna Kumar (Episode 7) in which they discussed the reform of the curricula and textbooks produced by India’s National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) during Prof. Kumar’s term as Director between 2005 and 2010. To the surprise of many - including Prof. Kumar - the NCERT curricula and related teaching materials produced then had remained substantially unaltered down to the present day (2023). The BJP regime that took power at the centre in 2014 had so far refrained from seeking to impose a major curricular revision. However, this situation changed in April 2023, when significant cuts to NCERT textbooks were announced. The changes included: Removing references to Darwin’s theory of evolution from textbooks used by students in the compulsory phase of schooling (at Grade 10 level); Removing from history textbooks references to the Mughals (Muslim rulers of much of India from the 16th to the 19th centuries) and to other Muslim regimes and historical figures; Altering the account of the life and ideas of M.K. Gandhi (‘Mahatma Gandhi’) in political science textbooks so as to delete mention of Gandhi’s opposition to Hindu-supremacist visions of India, and obscure the identity of his murderer (Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist with links to the RSS organisation, today closely affiliated with the ruling BJP); Removal from Social and Political Life textbooks of portions dealing with problems such as social inequality or caste (and similar deletions from senior-level Sociology texts); Removal from Geography textbooks of sections discussing aspects of the climate in India and elsewhere. In this follow-up (recorded in May 2023) to his earlier interview, Prof. Kumar talks to Edward about what these cuts signify. Why were they introduced now, in 2023? How have they been justified? How much impact are they likely to have on actual teaching and learning (given that the majority of India’s schools do not use NCERT texts)? Or does the significance of these changes lie more in their political symbolism - as a signal or rallying call to the central government’s Hindu nationalist supporters? And what do these cuts to textbooks portend for NCERT’s planned new National Curriculum Framework, to be issued in 2024? Prof. Kumar explains how the recent cuts to textbooks have been justified as a means of ‘rationalising’ the curriculum or reducing the ‘burden’ on learners, invoking arguments that have long been used by advocates of curricular reform. However, he emphasises that simply removing sections from textbooks, in so far as it undermines the coherence of the course of study, is likely to cause greater confusion and difficulty for students. The recent changes can be seen as part of a drive to reinforce the more traditional, top-down, didactic form of pedagogy that NCERT’s 2005 Curriculum Framework had sought to challenge and dislodge. And this didacticism is related to a political vision that emphasises discipline and control. In political terms, the 2005 Framework was intended in part to signal India’s status as a plural, diverse, democratic society. By contrast, these new changes seek to assert pride in a monolithically Hindu vision of Indian civilisation, represented as pure, unique and unsullied by ‘foreign’ elements. The likelihood is that this vision will be further elaborated in NCERT’s 2024 National Curriculum Framework. Speculating about the likely impact of these curricular changes, Prof. Kumar wonders how many of India’s states are likely to adopt the latest NCERT textbooks or its forthcoming National Curriculum Framework. He suggests that this new injection of ideology into debate over India’s state school curriculum may accelerate the trend for wealthier Indians to opt out of the state system entirely, and instead send their children to private, international schools that follow a curriculum detached from the local context. This may in turn exacerbate a fracturing of Indian society, with indoctrination prescribed for the masses, while elites secure a liberal education for their own children. At the same time, Prof. Kumar warns that we should not overestimate the capacity of education on its own to achieve politicians’ ideological goals. The school curriculum will remain a site of contestation, and crude attempts at curricular control may rebound on the regime. Forces in India’s states and at various levels of society that have maintained the country’s diversity will not simply ‘die’ or disappear, and ideologically-driven attempts to suppress diversity may provoke more intense forms of resistance that could ultimately undermine the authority of the ideologues. Suggested readings: Srishti Jaswal (2023). ‘Mughals, RSS, evolution: Outrage as India edits school textbooks’. Al Jazeera. www.aljazeera.com (April 14). Krishna Kumar (ed.) (2022). The Routledge Handbook of Education in India. New Delhi: Routledge (second edition). Krishna Kumar (2023). ‘Planned Incoherence’, Economic and Political Weekly, May 6 (Vol. LVIII, No. 18), page 8. Prabhat Prakash and Abhishek Bhatia (2023). ‘Darwin’s Theory of Evolution: Struggling for Existence’, The Economic Times. www.health.economictimes.indiatimes.com (May 20).

In this episode, Edward Vickers interviews Professor Krishna Kumar ‘on location’ in Chandigarh, India. Professor Kumar, formerly of the Central Institute of Education at Delhi University, is a distinguished theorist of education and prominent commentator on a range of educational issues in India and more widely. From 2005 to 2010, he was the Director of India’s National Council for Educational Research and Training. Appointed to that position by the new Congress-led UPA government shortly after its 2004 electoral victory, Prof. Kumar took charge of an institution widely seen as having been used for political purposes by the preceding BJP-led NDA government. The conversation begins with a survey of India’s complex educational landscape, especially as it pertains to the roles of the central (‘Union’) and state governments in curriculum development. Prof. Kumar emphasises the often under-appreciated strength of Indian federalism, and its significance for education. The design of curricula and teaching materials for most Indian schools is determined at state or provincial level, and curriculum development in powerful states or provinces such as Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala is often conducted with limited reference to debates in Delhi. Nevertheless, NCERT's curricula and textbooks hold significance not only for the minority of schools directly under the authority of the central government, but also as a point of reference for curriculum developers at state level (especially in some of India’s smaller states). Reflecting on the reforms that NCERT undertook during his Directorship, Prof. Kumar explains how he saw his task as involving far more than restoring or reaffirming the secular tenets of the school curriculum that the BJP had undermined. He elaborates the child-centred pedagogic vision that informed the curriculum reforms he oversaw, and how this was related to efforts to transcend simplistic ideological or political divisions. Turning to perhaps the most sensitive area of the curriculum, the teaching of history, Prof. Kumar explains how he and his colleagues sought to apply the child-centred approach to this and related areas such as political or citizenship education. The approach to history education inherited from the colonial era had presented students with a ready-made, monolithic and ostensibly ‘correct’ narrative of the past. Instead, Prof. Kumar’s team at NCERT sought to devise a curriculum that would make learners aware of the constructed and contested nature of history as a form of knowledge. The new curriculum was designed not simply to tell children what we know about the past, but crucially to prompt them to reflect on how we know what we know. This approach to teaching history implies an emphasis on the agency of the learner - a vision of students not just as passive recipients of pre-packaged historical knowledge, but as active interpreters of historical evidence. This in turn implies a vision of students as active citizens in-the-making. But as Prof. Kumar explains, the promotion of active citizenship was more explicitly the remit of a new subject that was introduced as part of the NCERT’s curriculum reforms: Social and Political Life. This was designed to replace the old Civics subject, whose didactic pedagogical approach was again traceable to a colonial concern with disciplining and controlling a subject population. By contrast, Social and Political Life sought to encourage students to bring issues of direct concern to them into the classroom, as a means of realising the child-centred vision underpinning the curriculum reforms. The participatory vision of pedagogy was also reflected in aspects of the curriculum development process itself. Here there was also a consultative, participatory element, involving discussions with teachers from various parts of India (facilitated by satellite link-ups with more remote parts of the country). These consultations were important not only for bringing into play different perspectives on the purposes or aims of various school subjects, but also for drawing attention to complex factors - such as teachers’ capacity and the availability of academic resources - with implications for curriculum design and implementation. Moving on from discussion of the curriculum reforms of the early 2000s, the conversation touches on more recent developments in relevant to education. These include the implications of the Right to Education legislation introduced under the Congress-led administration; the effects of widespread social media use on the consciousness and political engagement of young people; and the educational impact of the recent Covid pandemic. The conversation also touches on the increasing marketisation and commercialisation of the education sector, and what this means for equality of access and curricular emphasis. (These issues are discussed more fully in Season 1: Episodes 5 and 6.) This interview was conducted in late March, 2023, by which point the reformed curriculum had been in use for around 17 years. Many observers had expected the new curriculum to be swept away after the BJP ousted the Congress-led government in the elections of 2014. But a committee tasked by the new administration with reviewing the curriculum concluded that there was no need for major reform. In celebrating the unexpected longevity of the reformed curriculum, Prof. Kumar thus comments here that is has ‘not only survived, but sustained with splendid stability’. However, as we discuss in a follow-up interview (Episode 8), significant revisions to NCERT textbooks introduced in April 2023 have since required that this verdict be updated. Suggested readings: Latika Gupta (2015). ‘Making Reflective Citizens: India’s new textbooks for Social and Political Life’, in Vickers and Kumar (eds), Constructing Modern Asian Citizenship. London and New York: Routledge, 105-124. Krishna Kumar (2014). The Politics of Education in Colonial India. New Delhi: Routledge. Krishna Kumar (2002). Prejudice and Pride: School Histories of the Freedom Struggle. New Delhi: Penguin. Krishna Kumar (2016). Education, Conflict and Peace. New Delhi: Orient Black Swan (especially Chapter 2, ‘Children and History’). Krishna Kumar (ed.) (2022). The Routledge Handbook of Education in India. New Delhi: Routledge (second edition). UNESCO-MGIEP (2017). ‘Chapter 5: South Asia’ in Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century: The State of Education for Peace, Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship in India. New Delhi: UNESCO-MGIEP, 136-168.

Part 2: Ethical implications of educational technology and learning assessments This episode continues the conversation begun in Episode 5 with Professor Anita Rampal, former Dean of the Faculty of Education at Delhi University. We further discuss the growing ascendency of ‘non-state actors’ in Indian education, with a focus on the push for the use of technology in teaching and assessment. In India, educational technology is today widely embraced as a means of ‘democratising’ education for the poorest. There has been an impetus from the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and NITI Aayog for increased use of artificial intelligence, digital platforms, machine learning and adaptive assessment of students. Anita discusses several ethical issues raised by the push for the use of technology in education and for learning assessments, including: The resort to online delivery of education in India during the pandemic and the resulting abandonment of “offline” children The relationship between the growing legitimacy of online education and the further erosion or dismantling of the public education system Issues posed by technology for the privacy of teachers and students Online adaptive or algorithmic assessments, ‘datafication’ of children, and the problems of so-called ‘personalised assessment’ for students and teachers The OECD and the regime of international large-scale learning assessments, its ‘for profit’ partners, and the risk of a narrow or impoverished conception of the scope of learning, curriculum, and assessment UNESCO’s shifting discourse on the ‘quality of education’ Other themes discussed include the ‘Happiness’ curriculum of Delhi schools and other initiatives such as entrepreneurship education, and the implications of the new thrust to promote ‘Ancient Knowledge Systems’ for public schooling and the right to education. Recommended readings: Arnove, R (ed.). 1980. Philanthropy and cultural imperialism: The foundations at home and abroad. Boston, MA: G.K. Hall. OECD and Pisa tests are damaging education worldwide (An open letter to Andreas Schleicher, Director of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment) Rampal, A. 2023. Dataveillance of children. Seminar, No. 765, May 2023. UNESCO. 2004. Education for all: the quality imperative; EFA global monitoring report 2005; summary. Paris, UNESCO.

In this episode of the Asian Education Podcast, we are joined by Professor Anita Rampal, who was the Dean of the Faculty of Education at Delhi University and has over 40 years of active engagement with the state education system in India. Her long and rich career as an educationist includes her involvement in the development of the 2005 National Curriculum Framework, in particular, serving as Chairperson of the NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training) Textbook Development Committee. Against the backdrop of UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report for 2021/2022 on ‘non-state actors’ in education and its exceedingly positive assessments of key Indian actors such as Pratham and the Central Square Foundation, we discuss the ascendency of ‘non-state actors’ in the Indian education policy landscape and its implications for the right to education – and what is happening on the ground to students and teachers. To contextualise the rise of new types of ‘non-state actors’ in India since the turn of the century, the first part of this episode focuses on Anita’s recounting of the history of India’s quest for education for all from the 1970s onwards and the ascendency of Pratham as a key actor reshaping the Indian education policy landscape. She covers a wide range of themes including: The All India People’s Science Network (a national network of People’s Science Movements of India, which was established in the first All India People’s Science Congress, organised in 1988 in Kerala State, building on the initial effort to establish a national platform for science organisations in India started in the late 1960s). This relates to a discussion of how Indian scientists came to be involved, after the Bhopal Gas disaster, in collaboration with the government’s National Literacy Mission during the 1990s. This initiative was based on Freirean approaches to adult literacy, involving what Anita calls “reading and righting the world”, characterised by critical literacy, decentralised and participatory interventions, with millions of volunteers working mostly in rural areas. This led to a major rise in demand for school education The origins of Pratham as an organisation working on the adult literacy programme in Mumbai, in a predominantly urban environment A critique of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), released by Pratham in 2005, and subsequently published annually with support from the Planning Commission (NITI Aayog since 2015) Her involvement with the PROBE report (Public Report on Basic Education in India, OUP, 1999), spearheaded by Jean Drèze and released by Amartya Sen, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998; also with the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE, enacted in 2009) Her first-hand observation of the divide within the government over the RTE, between the Planning Commission (which supported ASER and its contested claim on declining learning levels since RTE) and the Ministry of Education (which upheld the RTE) India’s (selective) participation in OECD-PISA in 2009 (promoted by World Bank, even though the Ministry had declined to enter), and the use of poor results (with India ranked 72nd out of 73 countries) by Pratham and its collaborators to “shame” the public education system (as students from the best provisioning states of Himachal Pradesh and Tami Nadu sat for the test), dismissing the RTE which emphasises the importance of quality of provisioning including infrastructure and staffing The rise of the discourse of ‘learning outcomes’ and its implications for equity The adoption of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which contradicts key tenets of the RTE and its mandated inputs (including a good quality school in the neighbourhood, with qualified teachers). NEP instead promotes alternative routes such as Open School, which invites private actors to provide education, assuring them that there will be no focus on inputs, but only on learning ‘outcomes’. The phenomenon of philanthrocapitalism and the Central Square Foundation In the second part of the episode, Anita discusses the segregation of students in Delhi schools (based on an approach promoted by Pratham, J-PAL, and the Central Square Foundation known as ‘Teaching at the Right Level’), the rise of public-private partnerships, and the implications of these recent developments for inclusive and equitable quality education. The themes discussed include: The use of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) and ‘evidence-based’ interventions to legitimise differentiation and discrimination of children based on testing Authentic assessments of student learning and the importance of providing students with creative environments to learn, and of giving both students and teachers autonomy The introduction of the CSR initiative (via enactment of Companies Act, 2013), the rise of corporate foundations, and their influence on education policy and practice via financial contributions to favoured public initiatives Corporatisation of the education sector and the rise of low-cost private schooling for the poor (e.g. Bridge International Academies brought to India by the Central Square Foundation) India’s role as a ‘laboratory for results-based financing in education’ (GEM report, p. 110, Box 4.5) Recommended readings: Ball, S.J. & Thawer, S. 2019. Nodes, Pipelines, and Policy Mobility: The Assembling of an Education Shadow State in India. In Kenneth J. Saltman and Alexander J. Means (Eds), The Wiley Handbook of Global Educational Reform. Wiley Blackwell. Rampal, A. 2023. Dataveillance of Children. Seminar, 765, 13-17. (https://www.india-seminar.com/semframe.html) Rampal, A. 2018. Manufacturing Crisis: The Business of Learning. Seminar, 706, 55-59. UNESCO. 2021. Global Education Monitoring Report 2021/2: Non-state actors in education: Who chooses? Who loses? Paris, UNESCO UNESCO-MGIEP. 2017. Textbooks for sustainable development: a guide to embedding. Delhi, UNESCO-MGIEP.

In this episode of the Asian Education Podcast, we are joined by Dr Brenda Dobia, who has a background both in clinical psychology and cultural studies, and has been actively involved in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), both in her native Australia and in Asia-related projects. In Australia, she has worked with indigenous children and youth and on training pre-service teachers in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). We begin by discussing Brenda’s involvement with the Australian government’s mental health and well-being initiative for the early childhood and primary phase, KidsMatter, which had SEL as one of its pillars. We then discuss how SEL discourse has gained traction in policymaking circles, through widespread adoption of the CASEL framework and growing credence to the idea that social and emotional skills are teachable skills. Questions that arise include: Who identifies these skills? How can (or should) they be assessed? And for what purpose? Drawing on her experience of efforts to adapt KidsMatter for indigenous communities, Brenda elaborates on the challenges of accommodating cultural diversity within standardised approaches to SEL. For example, SEL based on mainstream Australian values, including the assumption that children should have autonomy and express their individuality, may clash with indigenous values that see “standing out and putting yourself forward” as shameful. But the issues raised by the growing fashion for SEL extend beyond such questions of cultural adaptation or contesting ‘Western’ universalism. As we noted in Episode 3 (our interview with Tara de Mel on education policy in Sri Lanka), SEL is also increasingly touted as a strategy for responding to manifold crises. But is the most appropriate response to a crisis like climate change, for example, to teach individual youngsters to manage their anxiety (the SEL approach), or should we be urgently fostering political agency and active citizenship as we work together to tackle such issues (the ESD approach)? Might certain forms of SEL contribute to depoliticisation, deterring young people from speaking up - especially in the many Asian societies where regimes seek to lend conformity and political quiescence the sanction of ‘tradition’? In assessing the usefulness (or otherwise) of SEL programmes, we need to be mindful not just of cultural difference, but also of political context. As our conversation with Brenda takes a more political turn, we discuss tensions between individualism and collectivism, the fashion for yoga and mindfulness as a ‘reverse import’ from the United States to Asia, and the relationship between Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas and youth climate activism. Notes: Edward’s comment on the arrest of an Indian climate activist (around 38:10) requires explanation. In February 2021, Disha Ravi, one of the founders of the Indian chapter of the Fridays for the Future climate strike, was arrested after sharing a document (first tweeted by Greta Thunberg) intended to help Indian farmers protesting against new agricultural laws. Her arrest therefore broadly reflects the Indian government’s approach to quelling dissent and deterring anti-government protests, if not specifically its reaction to youth climate activism. Organizations and initiatives mentioned in this episode KidsMatter KidsMatterAustralia - YouTube (an Australian mental health and well-being initiative set in primary schools, early childhood education and care services, which has been turned into a national mental health in education initiative Be You) CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) Earth Charter Psychology for a Safe Climate Climate Psychology Alliance Recommended readings: Dobia, B., Roffey, S. (2017). Respect for Culture—Social and Emotional Learning with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth. In: Frydenberg, E., Martin, A., Collie, R. (eds) Social and Emotional Learning in Australia and the Asia-Pacific. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3394-0_17 UNESCO-MGIEP (2017). Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century: The State of Education for Peace, Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship in Asia. New Delhi: MGIEP. UNESCO-MGIEP (2020). Rethinking Learning: A Review of Social and Emotional Learning for Education Systems. New Delhi: MGIEP.

Tara de Mel on Sri Lanka’s Educational Challenges Sri Lanka has experienced a succession of acute crises over the past five decades, from terrorist insurgencies to ethnic civil war and, most recently, an economic emergency intensified by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Throughout this period, education has been intimately intertwined with the island’s various social and political problems. Endemic credentialism combined with economic stagnation have played a potent role in fueling youth discontent. Sri Lanka is celebrated for its success in universalising access to basic education. But the country’s experience illustrates that educational expansion in and of itself is not an unalloyed good - for Sri Lanka, this has entailed intensified competition, fueling the shadow education industry and worsening social inequality. Meanwhile, divisions of ethnicity, language and religion continue to threaten social cohesion, posing challenges for education reform. In this episode, Dr Tara de Mel talks to Edward Vickers and Yoko Mochizuki about her three decades of involvement in education policy debates in Sri Lanka. Originally a medical doctor and university lecturer, from the mid-1990s Prof. de Mel spent almost ten years as education policy advisor to President Chandrika Kumaratunga, also serving as Vice-Chair of the Education Commission. In recent years, she has continued to engage in education policy advocacy, founding the NGO Education Forum. Themes covered in this wide-ranging discussion include: The politics and practice of language education - specifically the aborted efforts in the early 2000s to expand access to ‘bilingual education’ (in English and mother tongues), and the more recent ‘trilingual education’ programme. Education’s role in fostering (or undermining) social cohesion. Curriculum and assessment in Sri Lankan schooling, and the challenges of reform. Problems of credentialism and examination-preparatory shadow education. The effects on Sri Lankan education and on young people of the Covid-19 pandemic. The potential and limitations of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in helping children, their families and educators to cope with crisis-induced trauma. Recommended readings: Tara de Mel (2023). Reforming Education: Challenges to Change (Education Reforms 1996-2005). Angela Little and Siri Hettige (2013). Globalisation, Employment and Education in Sri Lanka: Opportunity and Division. London and New York: Routledge. Christina P. Davis (2020). The Struggle for a Multilingual Future: Youth and Education in Sri Lanka. Oxford University Press.