Question

Now that you have identified what policy topics you would like to inform, which stakeholder you want to reach out to, and your bottom-line pitch, it is time to develop a short memo for your audience.

Prompt: As we've discussed in the lecture videos, it is important to bring a one page "leave behind" document outlining your research, and the main points you want a policymaker to take home from your engagement. This should include

1. Policy Recommendations
2. Background
3. Overview of the Research
4. Conclusions

These are harder to craft than you think! So, we wanted to give you a chance to start working on it here, and to get feedback from your fellow learners in the course.

Please submit a 1-page draft of your leave behind document, summarizing your main research points, and the policy outcomes you are advocating for. You will then review 3 of your peers documents and provide feedback, using the rubric below. Be sure to keep any feedback polite and respectful. We are all trying to make the world a better place with our policy ideas, this is an opportunity to help each other do even better work.

Grading Rubric:

Policy Recommendation [3 points]: Did the learner describe an actionable policy recommendation?

Problem Definition / Background Argument [3 points]: Did the learner describe the problem their policy will solve? Did the learner provide a background to motivate why their policy recommendation was important and relevant?

Clarity & Language [3 points]: Was the argument clearly articulated? Did the learner describe the policy recommendation and background in a way that a non-expert could understand?

Length [1 point]: Is the document the appropriate length for a 1-page policy document? This should be ~250 - 500 words.

Peer Feedback:  Did you find the argument convincing? Why or why not? Do you think the policy recommendation given by the learner is the best way to fix the problem? Is there something the learner did particularly well? Is there something they might have missed, or could use more work on?

Answer 1

Why the technology budget for state run universities should be provided or increased / Why technology to support online education should be subsidised by government (schools and universities)

Introduction

In recent months the pandemic and subsequent public health policies have caused a disruption of regular classes in all schools/universities. Safety concerns for students and staff have led academic institutions to cancel all in-person classes and activities and switch to online modes of education. A lot of universities were unprepared for the type and quantum of work that needed to move online and this has led to several issues with continuing classes, exams and overall university agendas and has impacted the current generation of students to differently extents.

Background

Globally there has been an increase in investment in educational technologies since before the pandemic and this has become even more important to allow students to keep up their academic performance (Lopez, 2020). Schools/Universities currently cannot fund the high costs of technology installations and continuous periodic upgrades and require additional assistance to ensure the business of education continues without disruption. Universities need additional funding to ramp up their technology departments and staff procedures to ensure similar scenarios in the future can be handled and continuity of operations maintained.

Analysis

As remote education might need to continue for a long period as the pandemic waxes and wanes and vaccines might be in making for another year or more according to a Chief Scientist at WHO (Prasad, 2020), the institutions need to devise adequate future plans to ensure students and national education programmes do not suffer. The availability of funding will allow the institutions to create and update their online teaching methods and channels, train their staff in the use of the new education requirements, and prepare students to receive classes and learning in online modes.

Conclusion

Academic institutions need to update their infrastructure, staff and policies/procedures to meet the changing demands of the new educational paradigm. To be able to do so, they need funding from the government on a periodic basis that can help to ensure impact on education for citizens is reduced so the nation is able to provide adequate education to its youth.  

References :

Lopez, Frank (2020) EDUCATIONAL NEEDS VARY IN TIME OF PANDEMIC. The Business Journal.

Prasad, R. (2020) COVID-19 vaccine: Completion of trials could take at least 6 to 9 months, says Soumya Swaminathan. The Hindu.