Reopening schools must for children excluded from online classes, school meals

NEW DELHI: Educationists, who are part of the Right to Education (RTE) Forum, have called for a more comprehensive look at children’s education during the pandemic instead of just welcoming back students to schools. They also stressed on the importance of school reopening for children left out of the online education.

The forum also said that schools should be reopened to ensure that child nutrition through mid day meals. The activists were speaking at a consultation held on Friday, titled “Safe reopening of schools focussing on denial and deprivation of learning, teacher development and pedagogy”.

RTE Forum is an alliance of academics, educationists, activists and former bureaucrats working in education and child rights. .

Learning loss

Activists, during the online consultation, criticised the central and state government for welcoming back children without working on ways to accommodate them back into formal schooling.

“Even as schools reopened just welcoming them back is not not enough. This is something unprecedented that has happened for the past 20 months or so. It is not enough to say that a counsellor will counsel them. There needs to be a look at the total picture to understand the learnings and their worries,” said Anita Rampal, professor at Delhi University and former chairperson of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) primary textbook development.

Educationists also criticised the governments’ focus on testing students and focussing on “learning loss”.

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“We shouldn’t use learning loss or even learning outcome because this is such a narrow way in which the system today is defining education, is defining children’s engagement and in fact is a discourse of denial. The system is saying inputs are not important and that is why it is just testing them and looking at their scores and calling it a learning outcome,” said Rampal.

“These children, like many of us, faced an unprecedented situation in the past 20 months. So, the solution to this should also be unprecedented,” said Rampal.

School reopening

Activists also emphasised the importance of school reopening in helping disadvantaged students who were left out from formal schooling when education shifted online. They also allayed fears of children being vulnerable to COVID-19.

“Schools should reopen unless there is very clear evidence that they should be closed down. We have understood with time that open spaces and ventilation are much more important than surface hygiene in reducing the spread of the virus,” said Vandana Prasad, national convenor for Public Health Resource Network (PHRN), a community paediatrician by practice.

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“The risks of COVID-19 is not that high for children and there is a low risk of complications. However, one needs to understand the phasic nature of the pandemic and the risks changes with each phase. However, currently the rate of transmission is very less,” said Prasad.

Members of the forum reiterated that schools should be reopened to bring back those students who were cut off from the school system during the pandemic.

“Recent surveys have shown that around 90% of students are offline in certain disadvantaged sections. The parents of these children are questioning why school is not reopening. On the other hand, there are many middle class, well-intentioned, parents who don’t want to send their children to school. This has affected the school reopening discourse as well,” said Rampal.

Online education

Activists also reiterated that online education cannot be a substitute for face-to-face teaching.

“We need to be very clear that online education is against children’s rights. People who have children of these ages, no matter however affluent they are, have noticed that this is not what education is. This is especially true for children from disadvantaged backgrounds who do not have access to these devices,” said Rampal

They pointed out that the more affluent parents can afford personal supervision and customized learning systems with artificial intelligence while those in government schools are treated with a one-size-fits-all approach. They also said that a customized learning system might be causing more harm than good.

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“These customized learning systems can be more damaging or at least equally damaging as not getting access to online education. Some of these customized algorithms are damaging and have many biases. People are not taking this seriously enough,” said Rampal.

They also hinted that the continued school closures in certain parts and the active push for online education might be influenced by the pressure put on the government by the big education technology companies.

“I think that’s quite clear from the fact that the policy brings out online education as only a reference to the pandemic. Universities saying 40-50 percent of credit from anywhere on any online platform will be part of the course. It is clear that the state wants to push online education to please these companies,” said Rampal.

Nutrition and health

The participants also raised concerns about health and nutrition of poor children observing that the pandemic has also drawn attention to the need for a school health programme.

“The schools health system, at least in Bihar, is very poor. There is a need for a very robust school health system. It should not be a camp-like approach but a more systematic one which involves trained paramedical staff,” said Dr Shakeel of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan Bihar.

They also pointed out the importance of the mid-day meal system in reducing malnutrition in India.

“We have new studies coming out that have more evidence to show that mid day meals treat malnutrition in addition to hunger in children. That is why reopening schools is important,” said Prasad.

Activists said that, in addition to nutritional benefits, children could gain from sharing their experiences in schools where peer groups naturally play the role of counsellors.