It was 14th of November and I was with my kids at the Children’s Day celebrations. It was a children’s cacophony in a closed gymkhana hall, with magic, loud music, games, fun and frolic. The diligently worn masks at entry were not present for most children within half an hour. Despite being someone who has treated COVID since March last year, and seeing what it can do for adults, the scene didn’t worry me, and I was glad that my kids were engaging in that. were what most of us would consider necessary to grow up. My kids engage in contact sports almost every day of the week, go to restaurants with us, and attend birthday parties and social gatherings to which they are invited. However, what they are not allowed to do is to physically go to school. To me, it shows how low we prioritize the rights of our children and the advice of scientific experts.
Why wasn’t I worried about my kids being in the middle of a flood of kids? There are several reasons for this: a. Despite not being vaccinated, half to two-thirds of Indian children have antibodies (based on seroprevalence surveys) that suggest they have been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus since the pandemic began. are infected, and therefore, have some degree of immunity for the foreseeable future. Infection b. Despite such a high proportion of children being infected, children’s hospitals were not overwhelmed or lacking beds, suggesting that most children had either mild or asymptomatic infections and c. The current low of new cases suggests that the chances of getting infected are low at present. I think these are the 3 governing scientific criteria that determine whether one should be in a closed space, especially when it is non-essential to be there.
Given that we consider schools essential, questions regularly arise like “Why take the risk?”, “Why not wait for children to be vaccinated?”, “What if children spread disease in the community?” These would all be valid questions if there were no real consequences for closing schools. All over the world, school reopenings have been prioritized because of the knowledge that even small school closures can cause profound harm to children. Even in cities like Mumbai with relatively strong digital services, the move from in-class to online education is discriminatory in favor of the affluent, and worsens an already uneven ground. It has multiplied in rural India, and experts have expressed serious concern about these “lost years”. UNICEF reports that only 60% of children in India can access digital classrooms in the 600+ days since school closures. The economic consequences of COVID are likely to discourage schools in favor of child labour, and the lack of incentives such as mid-day meals may worsen the equation. The Asian Development Bank has estimated that children in South Asian countries, including India, could lose up to 4.7% of their future earnings due to school closures. In the hierarchy of needs, the loss of formal education should be foremost in governance policy. However, we cannot ignore the fact that schools meet other needs like social interaction, play, interaction and camaraderie, all of which prepare children to become socially well-adjusted individuals. Mental health professionals in India and the rest of the world have expressed serious concern about the mental health consequences of depriving children of these valuable lessons.
This does not mean that schools should remain open, no matter what. We need an evidence-based dynamic policy for opening and closing schools based on the same 3 parameters mentioned above: a. Does some immunity persist in children based on the antibodies present? This is a dynamic question, and may change depending on new forms (even after vaccination). Are children protected from serious illness? and C. Is there a low background of new cases in any geographic area? Clearly, closing schools in the middle of a boom may be prudent, but it should be a decision that evolves, and pre-sets limits on test-positivity rates, or the number of new cases, or hospitalization rates. be inspired by , Easier to close schools when needed; This can be done overnight.
I hope we can reopen school soon. But I really hope we have a policy governed by science that formalizes the standards governing decisions made in the future. In the absence of this, as it is becoming increasingly clear, closing schools seems much easier than keeping them open. We are more indebted to our children.
Disclaimer
The views expressed above are those of the author.
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