Devastating impact on education sector in India due to Covid

The impact of pandemic COVID has badly affected the education sector in India as well world. Hard lockdown and other restrictions has created not only a disruption in studies but is also affecting the mental health as well as the physical health of Children. An estimated staggering number of 32 crore learners stopped going to schools/colleges and all educational activities halted in India. The education sector has been fighting to survive the crises with a different approach by adopting to the digital means of communication and digitising the challenges to wash away the threat of the pandemic.

Long closure affecting students psychology

It is a fact that closure of schools and colleges is leading to extremely damaging impact on the psychology of the students and it is actually leading to a worsening of their immunity which is the primary source for fighting COVID. Not only are these students deprived of education but they are also increasingly facing psychological issues. Children are not allowed to go outside and play and take part in the outdoor activities. School routines are important coping mechanisms for young people with mental health issues. UNESCO is supporting international locations of their efforts to mitigate the quick impact of faculty closures, particularly for extra weak and deprived communities, and to facilitate the coherence of training for all via distant studying. But studies on the SARS outbreak largely found that schools did not play a role in transmission of the virus, and so school closures didn't contribute to control of the outbreak. The same seems to be the case with COVID 19 wherein amongst the around 102 lakh positive cases reported so far in India, there has been fortunately almost a Nil mortality amongst the children below the age of 17 years.

Many private schools are closed

In India,the prolonged closure of schools for almost 9 months led lot of parents to believe that their children will be promoted by the Govt to next class without any Exams.As a result,  a drive started -no school, no fee-  that has severely affected schools' health . Thousands of private schools , particularly those running in rented accommodations in Tier II/III Towns and villages, have been closed permanently because they were unable to pay rents and salaries of staff. These schools were catering to  the needs of villages, semi-urban and urban areas.Their parents are not in a position to teach them or could provide them home tuition. As aresult, these students have been mostly roaming around with out any purpose as their schools remain closed. Efforts to give them online classes has in fact resulted in Mobile addiction on a big scale amongst the children.

Online Education does nt work for smaller age group

Online Education could be providing some solution for students of higher classes but certainly not for the students of primary and middle level grades. Another important factor is that atleast 70% of students in the Tier II/III Cities and Villages don’t have access to computer, tablet and smart mobile phones. Even schools do not have the required infrastructure and trained staff to run video classes. Students of these areas  have therefore been substantially  deprived from the benefit of education if the Physical Class Room teaching does not revive in the near future.

Request for physical classes before boaed exams

Representatives of Private School Associations of Villages and small cities have already represented to Govt that Board Exams should be held only after a minimum of 5 months of Physical classes so that students that don’t have access to Online Education are provided with level Playing field. Ms Kusum Chaudhry, Vice President of Private Schools Promote Association and Principal of NVN School, Faridabad spelt out the reasons as Under :

• Studies of students in the rural areas and Tier-2, Tier-3 cities has been badly affected since almost 70% of students in these areas do not have access to online education.
• Further, due to continued closure of schools and as a consequence of non-receipt of fees by private budget schools in these areas, large numbers of schools are also not in a position to provide online education.
• In view of this, a huge education divide has already been created wherein the students of premium/elite schools in Metros/Big Cities when compared to students of Private Budget Schools and T-2, T-3 towns and villages.
• In case, Board Exams are hold without having physical classes which allow students of these areas to be able to bridge this huge learning app, it will be huge injustice to millions of students across the country.
• Based on the feedback from the ground (since we are running a school in a village), we will not mince words and would like to state that this unwarranted prolonged closure of schools (States are opening and closing schools arbitrarily resulting in differences across states also)  for such a long period has led to denial of Fundamental Right to Equality to village students and denial of Right to Education to such students.
• It is interesting to note that as per the vaccine distribution plan formulated by Britain and Russia as well as India so far, children below the age of 15 years are not even figuring at present.  It is understandable and logical as scientifically, there is clear cut evidence that corona never actually impacted children.   It is evident from the fact that (fortunately) the mortality figures amongst children below the age of 17 are virtually zero.  Therefore, it really leads to lot of questions that what were the reasons, that schools were forced to be closed for such a long period. 
• Board Exams for 10th and 12th for the academic year 2020-21 should be held only after ensuring a minimum of 5 months of physical class room teaching so that the disadvantaged students from villages are able to cope with the lack of studies during the 8 months and have an equal playing field in Board Exams.  This will also lead to extension of academic session for 2020-21 that can be compensated in the coming year by reducing summer and winter vacations.

Time has therefore come that All Schools are reopened immediately. Otherwise, not only is their a chance of loss of one year of studies, thousands of Budget Private Schools will be forced to shut down their schools and this could have an extremely damaging impact on the Education scenario of India.