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

Swarn Singh

Plutus IAS Current Affair Team Member