Reopen schools before kids’ future badly hurt

The recent postcard campaign by parents in Hyderabad calling for reopening of schools, which have been shut for almost two years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, reflects the mood across the country. Parents and teachers, worried that their wards are losing interest in studies and taking to drugs and anti-social activities, are sending postcards to Telangana chief minister K. Chandraseskhara Rao and Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking them to take steps to open schools by January 31 this year. Its organisers say about 15 lakh parents have joined the campaign and about five lakh post cards have already been sent to the CM.

The pandemic has derailed normal life across nations. Governments have been forced to impose debilitating restrictions on people, going so far as to curtail livelihoods. However, conscientious governments world over, seeing the impact of such measures, also took remedial measures so that hardships were lessened. In short, they did not take the easy route. Not so in India, where people have very little governmental intervention or social security measures to keep lives together. Lakhs of guest workers walking hundreds of miles from cities where they were employed to their villages was the ultimate sign of governmental apathy towards those at the bottom of the societal pyramid.

The education system was another victim of the combined effect of the virus and governmental indifference. There was no effort to understand the problems a measure such as shutting down schools would throw up. Online classes became the norm the world over but India is one of the worst affected in terms of shared mobile telephony resources. The affluent in cities where there is good connectivity faced the least of the problems; the rest were made to suffer. The poor had very little access to equipment.

Now, the postcard campaigners tell us the other side of the story, too: online classes did harm to even those who had gadgets and access. Teachers and parents complain that there is no way they can induce discipline in classes when conducted online. The teachers can do nothing if a student goes off the screen when asked a question. Unhindered connectivity also opened doors to pornography, the campaigners allege.

Governments have realised by now that shutting down, whether it is the economy or education, is not the optimal way to fight a pandemic. We had a national lockdown in the first wave but the Union government does not even think of it now. States which introduced weekend lockdowns are lifting them in the first instance. This is a realistic approach, which should be extended to education.

We are now nearing the peak of a third wave and the government should start preparing for opening schools as soon as it recedes. Teachers should be considered frontline workers and administered vaccines, including booster doses. Efforts should be redoubled to introduce vaccines for those who are aged below 15 years, too. The governments should do whatever it takes to ensure that schools are opened, fully, as early as possible. Shutting them cannot be the first and easy option.

Governments have realised by now that

shutting down, whether it is the

economy or education, is not the optimal way to fight

a pandemic