Irrespective of the
epidemiology of Covid-19 that varies from one place to the other, our education
system consisting of schools, colleges and universities was shut across the nation
under a uniform policy, since March 2020 to almost August of 2021. This has no
doubt created a sort of educational emergency in the country.
During the closure, some
schools have, of course, offered on-line teaching. There are also reports
indicating significant number of on-line “learning-sessions” (3-17 bn) and “learning-minutes”
(37.85 bn) during the closure. But as
the studies carried out by private organizations/NGOs reveal that most of the
teachers are unprepared for remote teaching, one is forced to wonder if these
metrics really mean anything.
Over it, the youngest and the
poorest students were to struggle a lot to catch up with the online classes
owing to lack of devices or lack of knowledge-support from the family to handle
these gadgets to learn the lessons, to submit the homework and to write the
tests. In the process, no wonder, if many children from such families had given
up learning.
The woes of these children, if
examined dispassionately, are not just limited to availability/ non-availability
of gadgets alone. With the pandemic-induced lockdown causing job-losses or the
death of the breadwinner caused by the novel coronavirus made many children
from lower strata either ending up in caring for the sick/younger siblings or
work for pay. The net result of the loss
of formal learning for more than a year is: further widening up of educational
inequalities in the society.
Tragically, this is not the end
of the list of difficulties faced by millions of children hailing from the
poorer sections. Due to this lengthy closure of schools, these children were to
forego their midday meals. This had resulted in malnutrition which is sure to
impair their cognitive abilities. And this is bound to reflect on their future
learning prospects.
Against this backdrop, a group
of 56 experts—academicians and doctors and intellectuals from other professions—requested
the government to consider reopening of schools and resume in-person classes
for, “younger children are least at risk.” Their contention is that vaccination
of children should not be considered as a prerequisite for reopening schools,
since children are at a relatively low risk of severe or fatal Covid-19. And
that is after all what the vaccination too is affording: prevent severe illness
and death. So, they urge the governments to strike a balance of risks, which in
their opinion, indeed favors opening of schools.
Thus, governments have finally
started reopening schools, colleges and universities. In a way it sounds pretty
encouraging. Simultaneously, it also rings alarm bells for, there are multiple challenges—known
and unknown—likely to emerge that call for effective management.
First things first: observing Covid-19 appropriate behavior in
the schools. Each school must prepare and be ready with a support plan to
ensure safety of children. Testing temperature of children at the time of
entering the school, enforcing wearing of mask, maintaining distance and proper
ventilation in the classrooms, disinfecting school environment, particularly
areas that are frequently touched and ensuring availability of hand hygiene
facilities are the minimum requirements that schools, particularly government
schools must cater to.
As a uniform policy, students
were promoted to next grade, though syllabus was not fully covered, merely based
on their class-tests, etc., and hence there arises a need for offering a kind of ‘bridge-courses’ to
students to cover-up the learning losses. In the same vein, schools that
offered on-line teaching may have to
offer a sort of ‘remedial-courses’ to such students who could not avail the
on-line offerings owing to lack of infrastructural support. How geared up our schools are first to
identify the gap, then structure bridge-courses
with appropriate syllabus and offer support coaching to impart learning is a
big question mark. But the danger of
pushing up students through to the next grade without offering such learning being
obvious, this gap needs to be addressed with due diligence.
Finally, let us take a look at
the health support system available for the students. Although children are
said to be less prone for severe or fatal Covid-19, should contrary happen, its
broader impacts on society as a whole will be catastrophic. The experience of the US that had opened
schools recently, particularly with Delta variant, appears to be different from
common expectations. Also, we do not know the long-term effects of the disease
on children, particularly children with malnutrition and other comorbidities.
Another threat that the school-going children pose is that they can become ‘super-spreaders’
of the disease.
In the light of these threats,
public health support system must gear-up to ensure that students—children,
adolescents and young people—have easy and quick access to Covid-19 testing,
quarantine and treatment facilities. Specially equipped hospitals with
appropriately trained medical staff for treating young patients—isolated from
parents—of Covid-19 are to be created and schools/parents to be kept informed
of such centers to avail their facilities, should a need arise without loss of
time in running from hospital to hospital.
But the big question is: Have
we made these arrangements adequately? The answer is anybody’s guess!
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