The Big Challenge of Schooling India’s Offline

Context: The current pandemic has worsened the security of children in India. While access to education and nutritious food must be revived, technological innovation may hold the key.

Impact of COVID on children:

• Education Emergency: 1.6 billion students or about 90% of the world’s student population were out of schools due to lockdowns. – Save the Children Report.
• Education marred with a “learning crisis”: The critical need for foundational learning was brought into the spotlight by the Draft National Education Policy, 2019.
• Economic fallouts: Crisis could force an extra 90 to 117 million children into poverty.
• Poverty: India has one- third of the world’s poorest children.
• Nutrition: Deprived of essential nutrition and health services.
• Child Labour: May force children into an exploitative and hazardous workspace. Pandemic is likely to undo a 20-year battle against child labour. – International Labour Organization Report.

Way Forward: 

• Be Kind: 

• • • Socio-emotional learning must take center-stage so that these children can cope, process and reignite their enthusiasm to learn.
    • Sensitizing teachers and frontline Anganwadi workers to focus on mental and emotional wellbeing.

• Be Nimble: 

• Technological innovation needs to bridge this gap between the rich and the poor students, adopting technologies like television, radio and mobile.
• Push for digital inclusion: by Government, companies and civil society. 
• Ensuring Learning opportunities to be made available to every child.

• Every home a classroom, every community a learning environment: 

• Provisioning of Anganwadi services like learning, health and nutrition at home till the centers open.
• Make the community responsible for nurturing its younger members. 
• Guided play with a caring, attentive adult can boost early learning outcomes and enhance bonding, with benefits to both caregiver and child.