In a letter to Santa Claus, my seven-year-old wished not to have her favorite unicorn or Peppa Pig. Actually, this year the letter was very short but accurate. “It sucks. I want to go to school. I miss my friends. Open my school, Santa,” she wrote. It hit me hard. I felt like gaining weight, being a little fussy and spending too much screen time Other than that she’s doing fine.
But then, I tried to figure out what these kids were missing. I found that there are two different stories.
A – learning impairment, impact on physical and mental development, poor social skills and slow cognitive development.
b – Overall regression of primary and secondary education in terms of re-entry into the child labor market, early marriage of the girl child, increased drop-out rate among other consequences.
In this column, let’s explore the reasons why all children should go to school immediately.
Before we go any further, here’s an important fact: schools The whole of India was closed in March 2020 to prevent the spread of coronavirus. It was a right move, then we did not know anything about the virus. It was of utmost importance to protect vulnerable populations, including children. However, it is now almost 600 days where we have crossed the two waves and know the virus better.
According to UNESCO, India ranks second in terms of closing the longest schools in the world. Here, between March 2020 and October 2021, schools have been closed for 82 weeks or 1.5 years. Uganda is at number one with 83 weeks.
However, the partial shutdown is not there until the complete lockdown at the national level and India ranks 76th out of 227 countries.
Read also | Learning loss due to COVID-19 could be $17 trillion: UNICEF
Complete shutdown means when schools were closed nationally due to Kovid-19. In India, for 25 weeks, schools were closed nationally (counts as complete closure), while partial school closures were at 57 weeks, meaning school closures in certain areas or grades.
UNICEF data shows that in India, there were 247 million children enrolled in primary and secondary education and 28 million children attending pre-school education due to school closures.
COVID is not harmful to children
Not a single doctor, including neonatologists and paediatricians – all working in reputed private and public hospitals – told me that COVID-19 is fatal for children or anyone. cause for concern,
So far, in all three waves, “mild COVID-19” disease has been reported in children, which is cured “within a week”. Link to a detailed story on how COVID affects children and why it is not fatal, Here,
Government data shows that in the second wave, around 12% of the Covid-infected population was contributed by patients below the age of 20. However, there is not much data to show the current or overall trend of COVID disease in children.
In all hospitals, according to medical experts, covid does not appear to be the cause of the disease, rather it is accidental. For example: A child hospitalized due to liver disease was diagnosed with COVID-19.
Can’t wait to get the kids vaccinated
According to scientists and vaccine experts, there is not much need to vaccinate children, especially children below 12 years of age.
NTAGI panel member and epidemiologist Dr Jayaprakash Muliyil told me in an interview that he has informed the central government that “the children are doing fine and we should not be vaccinated kids now”.
The decision of NTAGI – the apex panel to decide on vaccination in India – was based on the fact that no mortality rate has been observed in children due to COVID-19.
Also, vaccine expert Dr. Gagandeep Kang once told me that there are many unanswered questions that India needs to consider before starting to vaccinate children under the age of 12.
In fact, we are not even sure which are the best vaccines that can be used to vaccinate young children.
Online classes are not a solution
Experts dealing with child psychology and teachers believe that social, emotional and cognitive abilities may not be developed in children. online education,
Sample this: Prolonged school closures have had a significant negative impact on young children, found a study by Azim Premji University (APU).
The study found that on average, 92% of children have lost at least one specific language ability and 82% have lost at least one specific mathematical ability in classes 2-6 of the previous year.
The study size was of more than 16,000 school children spread across five states – Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
Disclaimer: The study was conducted in January 2021 – exactly a year ago. By now, the impact may be much greater than previously thought.
As kids take online classes, they also tend to socialize more online.
However, a global study reports that “increased and unstructured time online can expose children to potentially harmful and violent content as well as greater risk of cyberbullying”.
“Spending more time on virtual platforms may leave children more vulnerable to online sexual abuse and grooming, as predators seek to take advantage of the COVID19 pandemic,” a UNICEF statement said.
physical and mental symptoms
Dry eyes, obesity, an acute vitamin D deficiency, poor sleep, anger problems and speech delays – these are just some of the obvious effects of COVID-19 on children’s well-being.
While there are many discussions going on regarding the mental impact of Kovid-19 on children, Child disease The closure of schools has seen a rise in physical health issues, which restrict mobility and lead to a sedentary lifestyle.
According to a paper by the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, the most common psychosocial and behavioral problems among children and adolescents in the pandemic were inattention, clumsiness and distraction.
They noted that the risk of developing these problems is greatly increased if children already have mental health conditions.
move beyond metros
UNICEF estimates show that before the pandemic, only a quarter of Indian households had internet access. Then what about online classes? How many people can afford multiple screens at home for their multiple school children who have to attend online classes at the same time?
A survey in August 2021 called School Children Online and Offline Learning (Schools) found that of the nearly 1,400 school children in rural areas, only 8% were studying online regularly, 37% were not reading at all and nearly half were unable to. Were. To read more than a few words.
Unfortunately, according to the Unified District Information System for Education, the number of dropouts at the secondary school level has increased across the country and is up to 17%.
This trend is harmful and regressive in rural India.
Economist Abhijit Banerjee said financial Times That many Indian children could never return to school, especially those who took up jobs to help families. “Once you enter the labor market, it’s very hard to come back,” he said.
There is a very important concern raised by Banerjee – will we be able to recover the learning loss smoothly? No, maybe.
“For those returning to the classroom, the long-term results of the past year will depend on whether teachers acknowledge the extent of lost abilities – and create realistic plans to help students regain them,” He told the FT.
different story for girls
girls badly affected by the shutdown.
According to the National Right to Education Forum’s policy brief, as many as 10 million girls may drop out of secondary school – a possible regression and pointing to the failure of many education policies, programs and NGOs that have brought awareness to the community, which have Motivated families to educate the girl child.
The forum has sounded the alarm saying that the pandemic could adversely affect girls as well, increasing the risk of early marriage, followed by early pregnancy and poverty.
Families and teachers are vaccinated
Apart from protecting children from the virus, the idea of closing schools was to prevent the transmission of the virus through children to their family members. Now, most of those family members have been vaccinated against the serious Covid-19 disease with two shots.
The second concern was the spread of infection to and from teachers. Despite these concerns, the central government did not include teachers as “frontline workers” to prioritize COVID-19 vaccines. However, now teachers have also been fully vaccinated.
So, what stops India from opening schools across age groups and states? Have a look at district and block wise epidemiological data and start opening schools.
PS: I used to hum constantly while writing this column.
“Savere, savere yaron se milne, Bun-than ke nikle hum…Ghar se door chalein hum, School chalein hum…”
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