{"id":118064,"date":"2021-07-12T17:50:32","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T12:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=118064"},"modified":"2021-07-12T17:50:32","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T12:20:32","slug":"our-children-need-education-how-much-longer-can-schools-remain-shut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/our-children-need-education-how-much-longer-can-schools-remain-shut\/","title":{"rendered":"Our children need education. How much longer can schools remain shut?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/children-safety-school-education-covid-government-agenda-7399892\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Indian Express <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pandemic resulted in school closures across the country. Children were then educated using the digital medium, however, it failed to generate positive outcomes like classroom learning. Therefore, the government should now focus on the gradual and cautious reopening of schools in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Schools have remained closed since March 2020 in order to protect the children from the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There has been sporadic opening of schools for older children, but the government hasn\u2019t shown any willingness to reopen for the remaining lot.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Need to reopen the schools<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li><b>First<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, there are <\/span><b>multiple issues with virtual learning<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has reduced the \u201ccollaborative magic of the classroom into little more than an instructional video\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Teachers try their best, but have <\/span><b>limited ability to teach fundamental concepts and enforce discipline<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; young students have limited ability to learn.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Concerns around screen-time have <\/span><b>reduced school hours by one-third<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for our young children.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More importantly, <\/span><b>behavioral changes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> such as impatience and aggression are emerging. Older children are developing depression.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The physical development of children is hindered as they are unable to play sports.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Second<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, there is a <\/span><b>digital infrastructure deficit across the country<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><b>According to Save the Children,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> during the first wave in 2020, three out of every four children had no internet access and four out of five children reported obstacles to learning.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Third<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, many parents can\u2019t assist their children given their<\/span><b> lack of digital literacy.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Fourth, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">many children have been <\/span><b>deprived of mid-day meals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, thereby increasing the burden on already struggling families. There are <\/span><b>reports of children being forced into child labour and marriage<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as well.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Fifth, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the rationale behind school closure was safety, but the <\/span><b>opening of other indoor spaces has already exposed the children to the virus<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Even if children stay home, they are exposed if adults go out.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Lastly<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, according to the <\/span><b>Asian Development Bank<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, every year of schooling lost causes a 9.7% reduction in potential earnings.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The estimated present value of learning losses due to prolonged school closures in developing Asia (including India) is $1.25 trillion or <\/span><b>5.4 per cent of the region\u2019s 2020 GDP.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h5><b>Way Ahead:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Lancet COVID-19 Commission India Task Force <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">has recently recommended reopening of schools with adequate safeguards as Covid-19 cases decrease. Safety of children must be balanced with physical and mental development.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further,<\/span><b> the Indian Academy of Paediatrics<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> stated that it was highly unlikely that the third wave will predominantly or exclusively affect children.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The focus should be placed on <\/span><b>rapid vaccination of school staff,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as widespread vaccination of adults helps protect unvaccinated children.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to<\/span><b> a recent Israeli study,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for every 20 % increase in the share of vaccinated (16-50 years), the share of unvaccinated under 16 years who tested Covid positive decreased by half.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Our elected leadership must consult experts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to formulate a roadmap for safe reopening of schools. For instance, a hybrid model could be adopted for restoring connections between teachers and students and improving the efficacy of virtual classes.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Schools will need to implement measures such as sanitisation, frequent testing, ventilation, reduction in class sizes and staggered drop-off and pick-up.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The above will involve considerable effort and cost, and it may entail start-stop openings and closures. However, with appropriate safeguards, this will reinstate children and teachers in the classroom and parents in the workforce.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Indian Express \u00a0 Synopsis: The pandemic resulted in school closures across the country. Children were then educated using the digital medium, however, it failed to generate positive outcomes like classroom learning. Therefore, the government should now focus on the gradual and cautious reopening of schools in the country. Background: Schools have remained closed since&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/our-children-need-education-how-much-longer-can-schools-remain-shut\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Our children need education. How much longer can schools remain shut?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704906311},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}