Prioritizing school reopening on the road to recovery (The Hindu, GS-2, Education)

13 Jul Prioritizing school reopening on the road to recovery (The Hindu, GS-2, Education)

Context:- The schools in India have been closed since the national lockdown which was started in March 2020. These successive lockdowns have posed some fundamental questions about the current condition and a future perspective.

The fundamental questions are:-

• What are the costs of keeping schools closed? 
• How do these costs compare against the risks of school reopening?
• What will this do to the future of India’s children? 
• Does it not push the next generation deeper into poverty?

Let’s Explore these question with the statistics:-

Statistics:-

• According to The Lancet study, India will stabilise its population 12 years earlier than expected .
• There are 253 million adolescent  which make India’s adolescent population among the largest.
• India’s Population over 62% of India is aged between 15 and 59 years at the same time the median age of the population is less than 30 years. 
• According to the World Bank, India’s  public expenditure on education constituted 4.4% of GDP in 2019 and 3.4% of GDP in 2020 only. 
• In India almost 32 crore students have been affected by the nationwide lockdown due to COVID­19 and out of it, 15.8 Crore are the female children.
• According to the International Labour Organization, 65% of adolescents worldwide have reported learning less during the pandemic, and at the same time 51% felt that their learning would be further delayed.
• According to the International Labour Organization, 17%  of young people are likely to be suffering from anxiety and depression. 

Why should India prioritise school reopening?

• There have been various regions around the world which are worse hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic than India, have kept their schools, especially primary schools, mostly open.
•  People make considerable investments in their childrens’ education for a better future, so anything which hampers their future must be terminated.
• In India the bottom half of children passing Class 10 are about two years behind in terms of skills as they should have and a prolonged school closure has already widened this gap.
• A survey across 10 States in India in November 2020 has estimated that nearly two thirds of children in rural India may drop out of school which will cause a bleak future and may push these children into poverty.
• Haryana has reported a 42% drop in student enrolment in private schools, this may further exacerbate the already dim situation in Indian schools.
•  A Prolonged school shutdown has severely set back India’s fight against ills such as child labour and child marriage .
• Shutdown of schools due to lockdown has disrupted mid­day meal schemes.
• In Las Vegas, U.S.A, Asurge of student suicides forced schools to reopen in January 2021.
• There is a 40% rise in the number of children taking antidepressants.
• Children are at much lower risk of COVID­19 than for adults.
• COVID­19 in the age group of children is less than half as risky as seasonal influenza, and over 20 times less risky than death by “unintentional injury”. 
• A recent study in Sweden says among the nearly two million children, there was not a single child death due to COVID­19. 
• The newer variant Delta is much less dangerous than the original which is the expected evolutionary path of a virus.
• The risk of spread and infection of COVID­19 in schools is minimal compared to other locations.

What are the issues in the Indian Primary Schools:-

• Shortage of teachers is one of prominent factors in the slow expansion of compulsory primary education which is due to poor remunerations.
• Indian primary education is underfunded.
• Indian primary education is ill equipped with the infrastructure, resources etc.
• The burden of primary education in almost every State rests on local bodies, that is, on municipal and district boards.
• Poor quality of institutional support for teachers which enhance professional development.
• Currently there is a wave of digital education which has its own set of problems:
  • There is a dearth of digital devices with the teachers and at the same time with the students.
  • A digital divide which can be seen in rural and urban and among the rural society and urban society as well.

Effects of School shutdown:-

• With Increased poverty levels in India, this COVID-19 pandemic may lead to early marriages of girls in India because child marriage is consider as a strategy to address household poverty has been noted in India in general.
• This COVID-19 pandemic may increases in gender based violence
• Adolescent girls are at a very high risk during this COVID-19 pandemic, given the vulnerability of adolescent girls to abuse and trafficking, especially if primary caregivers fall ill or die.
• Girls are at the risk of violence at home at the hands of caregivers or partners.

What is the way forward:- 

• The Government must treat teachers and support staff on a par with essential workers, and offer these forerunners of education a prioritised vaccination.
• Any medical intervention must be based on a careful risk benefit analysis, especially for children.
• “one size fits all” policy may not be suitable.
• Parents who can afford to work from home and have sufficient resources for their children, may choose to continue with partially or fully online classes for a time being.
• Policymakers must make evidence based decisions toward school reopening and for any upcoming exigency.
• We have to prioritise the vaccination of teachers and school support staff.
• We have to prioritise our vaccination approach by allowing a decentralised approach where district ­level officials may reopen schools based on local COVID­19 transmission rates.
• Collaborative actions by key ministries, government agencies, and civil society will be central to developing a holistic and meaningful solution.
• An incentive for parents to send their children to school on the assurance of one nutritious meal.
• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Education Ministry must collaborate to disseminate key information to help adolescents safeguard their health and ability to learn.
• Delivery of menstrual hygiene products to adolescents where teachers can work as volunteers in collaboration with frontline health workers to distribute sanitary napkins to girls.
• The Health and Education Ministries should strengthen outreach via existing helplines and by enabling conversations on critical issues of mental health of adolescents and their reproductive and sexual health.
• Improving the lives of our adolescents in mission mode would lift their lives. 

Download Plutus IAS Daily Current Affairs of 13th July 2021