Parents concerned about learning loss among young kids
With schools restarting in-person classes for students in a staggered manner, experts have put forward a host of suggestions for when classes are resumed for younger children, so that children can make the transition to regular classes more effortlessly after over a year of online learning.
Focus on foundational literacy and numeracy through activities, games and songs; emotional intelligence among young children; and an increased parent-teacher partnership are a few of the suggestions from education experts.
While in-person classes have resumed for students of classes 9 to 12, and the admission process for entry-level classes (nursery, kindergarten and class 1) is set to begin this week, there is no clarity on when schools will reopen for KG to class 8.
Parents of children in entrylevel classes are worried that their wards may not be able to catch up with regular classes easily as the first year of their learning was completely online.
Naveen Bhatnagar, 31, a marketing professional from Greater Kailash-1, said his three-year-old daughter would have learnt a lot more in school.
“Her first year of formal learning happened via a screen -there was no interpersonal interaction with her teacher or peers. Lack of sufficient writing practice and social interaction might lead to both academic loss and loss of social skills needed for cognitive development. If schools reopen for younger children this year, we don’t know how our child will follow the curriculum,” he said.
Experts believe that the challenge before schools would be on easing the anxieties of both parents and children. Swati Popat Vats, president of the notfor-profit organisation, Early Childhood Association, which has over 48,000 members from across the country, said, “In a post-pandemic world, schools will need to focus on reciprocal learning, consisting of serve and return interaction, which affects a child’s behaviour and learning pattern. The academic loss can be made up if the basic skills, which can be developed with a number of household activities, are in place.”
Vats said since parents will be worried about their child’s safety, children will return to school with a heightened sense of anxiety. “Research shows that children cannot concentrate if they are stressed. Schools will need to pay attention to making children comfortable... Care has to be taken that teachers talk more to children and explain things rather than focusing on textbook learning,” she said.
Educationists also recommended schools form “special catch-up programmes” for children. Geeta Menon, former chair professor at Jamia Millia Islamia’s Centre for Early Childhood Development and Research, pointed out that online or distance education did not work well for young children.
“Schools may want to focus on teaching through textbooks to cover up for what has been lost. But focus should be on building learning skills through activities. Children have not had the experience of being at school and learning with peers. That is what they need to work on and the rest will fall into place,” Menon said.
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