Reimagine the pedagogy of law education in the post pandemic period - #Sukhvinder Singh Dari

 

 

Law education in India is offered at different universities and colleges where a lot of them are following a traditional approach over a standardised approach. The legal profession is very different from mainstream professions like engineering and medicine and is much more liberal in nature. The core value of this profession demands a strong skill set as it involves subjects that are multidisciplinary and have strong academic performance isn’t the only area of focus. While India boasts of having 1500 law schools and law departments, the uncontrolled expansion to meet the needs of an increasing number of students has led to a depreciating quality of the curriculum. However, the unexpected emergence of the COVID -19 pandemic has presented these institutes with an opportunity to rework their teaching techniques, curriculum and methodologies that have been outdated and introduce innovative learning programmes.

The nationwide lockdown has made it imperative for education to go online. This is where institutes are taking advantage and making a shift from the classroom lessons to online learning. Although they have a long way to go, they have already started upping their bar in a big way and are paving a way forward to the post-pandemic times.

Below are a few aspects that will be worked upon in this entire makeshift and reinvent new pedagogies based on the need of the hour:

Practical approach

Legal education is quite a diverse field with new branches like healthcare law, property law, cybersecurity law, environmental law emerging every day. These branches require an education curriculum that is tailor-made to the competencies and the specific roles and responsibilities. Legal education in the post-pandemic period will witness a transition from the theoretical based subjects to practical based learning which will include skill-based learning like training in data analytics, critical assessment and other legal delivery essentials. The new pedagogy will help in instilling flexibility, experienced-based learning and make the subjects much more interesting. Joint faculty teaching, student exchange programs and collaborative research will be encouraged and hold greater importance than it has been in the pre-pandemic times.

Boosting technology

Technological interventions have disrupted law education as traditional techniques involve books and other outdated methodologies which have been carried out so far. However, with the nationwide lockdown and schools and colleges being shut, education has become virtual. Colleges are revamping their curriculum and high-quality virtual learning opportunities have been put to test. Innovative technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning-based tools are being embraced in order to boost research capabilities. Legal education in the post-pandemic period will be much more tech enabled and scalable as students and faculty will no longer be constrained to being physically present. The new pedagogy will leverage digitisation on the present curriculum, training the present generation into becoming tech-savvy lawyers.

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