{"id":124301,"date":"2021-08-07T19:45:42","date_gmt":"2021-08-07T14:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=124301"},"modified":"2021-11-02T16:44:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T11:14:27","slug":"indias-schoolchildren-need-their-childhood-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-schoolchildren-need-their-childhood-back\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s schoolchildren need their childhood back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=GL58RLFTC.1&amp;imageview=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance:<\/strong> This article explains the need to reopen schools and recommendations to open them.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Synopsis<\/strong>:<\/h5>\n<p>India needs to stop asking whether schools are safe and start acknowledging that in-person school is essential<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Introduction:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Malls, bars, restaurants, and some offices are open, but schools have been closed for 16 months and counting. But schools are not. This situation needs to change.<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #f2e9f1;\">\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Read more<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/our-children-need-education-how-much-longer-can-schools-remain-shut\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Our children need education. How much longer can schools remain shut?<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h5><strong>Why do we need to reopen schools?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>In-person school education teaches children to share, wait for their turn, negotiate, and compromise. Depriving these will affect societal learning and development.<\/li>\n<li>For children from economically weak backgrounds, schools are a <strong>key source of nutrition <\/strong>(<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/mid-day-meal-scheme-govt-decides-to-provide-monetary-assistance-through-dbt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mid-day meal scheme<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>For some, schools serve as <strong>safe spaces from the chaos of their homes<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Many children do <strong>not have educated parents or cannot afford home tutors<\/strong>, for them, the denial of education results in learning losses.<\/li>\n<li>Further, the researchers agree that <strong>children are at a low risk of developing severe COVID-19<\/strong> compared to adults.<\/li>\n<li>Results of Indian Council of Medical Research&#8217;s (ICMR) <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/explained-icmrs-fourth-serosurvey-and-its-findings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fourth National Sero-Prevalence Survey<\/a>.\n<ul>\n<li>More than 80 percent of children from both urban and rural areas had antibodies. This means they were already infected and developed antibodies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #f2e9f1;\">\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Read more<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/lets-chalk-out-a-plan-to-reopen-our-schools-before-it-gets-too-late\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Let\u2019s chalk out a plan to reopen our schools before it gets too late<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h5><strong>ICMR recommendation to open schools:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>It will be wise to open primary schools first and then secondary schools.<\/li>\n<li>Vaccinate all support staff and teachers before opening the schools<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #f2e9f1;\">\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Read more: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/why-are-government-schools-not-the-first-choice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Why are government schools not the first choice?<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h5><strong>Suggestions to reopen schools:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>There are a host of recommendations on how to open schools safely, including by the World Bank, the Lancet COVID-19 Commission India Task Force etc. The government can follow them.<\/li>\n<li>Start schools in areas where the community level of infection is low.<\/li>\n<li>Declare school staff and <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-ride-to-safety\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">teachers as frontline workers<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Public campaigns to make school staff and parents aware of the low risk of transmission in schools and low severity in children<\/li>\n<li>Upgrade school infrastructure to facilitate a hybrid system of learning so that if parents are not willing, they can continue with online learning<\/li>\n<li>Formulate and issue guidance on COVID-19 protocols to be adopted by schools<\/li>\n<li>Greater investment in healthcare facilities and implementation of systems to track the local levels of infections.<\/li>\n<li>Adopt a rational policy where 50% of students attend physical classes on certain days of the week, while the other 50% come to school on the remaining days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #f2e9f1;\">\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Read more<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-pandemic-optimized-plan-for-kids-to-resume-their-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A pandemic-optimized plan for kids to resume their education<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Overall, India needs to stop asking whether schools are safe and start acknowledging that in-person school is essential.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-green\">\n<p><strong>Terms to know:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indian-council-of-medical-research-icmr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source:\u00a0The Hindu Relevance: This article explains the need to reopen schools and recommendations to open them. Synopsis: India needs to stop asking whether schools are safe and start acknowledging that in-person school is essential Introduction: Malls, bars, restaurants, and some offices are open, but schools have been closed for 16 months and counting. But schools&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-schoolchildren-need-their-childhood-back\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">India\u2019s schoolchildren need their childhood back<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"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":[231,212,7439],"class_list":["post-124301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-education","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-school-education","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704887443},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124301","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\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}