Let’s chalk out a plan to reopen our schools before it gets too late

Source – Live Mint

Relevance – Education is an important aspect of social and economic development.

Synopsis – With 15 months of learning loss, Government must start a dialogue on how and when to get children safely back in school.

Introduction

• The pandemic caused more than 15 months of learning loss for an entire student generation in India. Because schools had been closed since the outbreak began.
• Countries around the world have opened schools safely and with minimal risk to children’s health. However, India has yet to make headway in this direction.

Impact of Pandemic on children and everyone in the education sector-

• Learning loss – According to UNESCO estimates, children have lost two months for every month they haven’t attended school, that’s approximately 30 months of learning loss from the start of the pandemic.
• Digital divide- Not all students have smartphones with proper internet connection. The Lancet Covid-19 Commission India Task Force noted that only 24% of Indian households have access to internet facilities.
  • Rural parents and teachers also lack digital literacy.
• Parental fears- According to a study, 62% of parents will not take their children to school even if it is reopened on government instructions. Fearing a probable third wave
• Psychological impact on children’s mental health – Since May 2020, one-third of primary and half of the secondary students’ parents have reported that their child’s mental and socio-emotional health has been affected by the pandemic.
  • The number of children who are hungry, isolated, abused, anxious, living in poverty, and pushed into marriage has increased.
• Impact on teachers-
  • More than 80% of teachers said it was difficult to establish an emotional connection with students online. 90% said they couldn’t adequately measure development.
  • Salary loss– Almost one in two teachers have suffered a pay cut, while 11% lost their jobs.

Plan for reopening of schools-

• Learn from others’ experiences- Government should find a way to reopen schools based on the experience of other countries and the opinion of experts. As 90% of the world’s countries operated schools in some capacity.
  • Reopening with limited capacity-  Starting with as low as 25% of students coming to school on a given day. Experience has shown that even one in-person touch-point each week may significantly improve our children’s involvement.
• Proper safety measures – School teachers and employees must be vaccinated as soon as possible because many of them have been exposed to COVID due to election responsibilities, as well as other potentially unsafe environments.
• Alleviating parental fear of the 3^rd wave – There is no scientific evidence which states that the 3^rd wave would affect children more than any other age group.

Way forward-

Government should start the complex process of preparing to reopen schools by putting safety precautions in place and alleviating parental fears.