Is it right to deny schooling to children?

IN PERSPECTIVE

The uncertainty about reopening schools in Karnataka for children of pre-primary and primary classes continues. Is this justifiable?

The reasons cited include an expected second wave of Covid-19 cases in the state. This is not tenable because higher classes have been going on smoothly for the last couple of months. Even if these children attend schools only on alternate days, they are back to learning. This is a great relief to parents, teachers and students.

What about the children who attend kindergarten and Classes I to V? The government keeps saying a decision is in the offing. Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Public Instruction had written to the government, recommending that primary classes could be started. Still, the Govt is dithering.

This indecision has dire consequences for children’s learning. Azim Premji University has conducted a study on the impact of a prolonged closure of schools on children and found that there is a substantial decline in basic math and linguistic skills among children. The rhythm of learning is hampered in the absence of systematic face-to-face classroom interactions. Online classes have serious limitations especially in relation to younger children’s learning. Online learning arguably is a poor substitute for face-to-face learning.

If we take a cue from other countries, we realise that many of them have been carrying on with regular school even during the severe spread of Covid-19. One of the reasons they cited was that the parents could go to work only if children were sent to school. It is pertinent to study the situations in other countries where they have partially or fully opened their schools.

Studies in the USA show that only less than 12 per cent of the Covid cases belong to less than 18 years of age group. While older age groups constituted 60 per cent of all deaths, children formed 0.1 per cent or less. It is also seen that children are not infected or if infected, they do not become very ill, for a variety of reasons. “The immunologic make-up of children with healthier overall tissues may be one of the reasons for this. Predictably, when children returned to school, we saw that the number of cases was reassuringly low in this country,” says a Paediatric Infection Diseases expert from Stanford University.

The journal Paediatrics published a study on New York public schools, revealing that “in-person learning in schools has not contributed to increased incidence of the infection.”

Overall, children and particularly children less than 10 years of age have had low rates of infection, mild disease, and have been considered at lowest risk of transmission to others, studies in the USA have suggested.

In North Carolina, a study was undertaken in 11 school districts covering 90,000 students and teachers attending in-person school for nine weeks. NC health department reported “no instances of child-to-child transmission during the period.”

Children are showing signs of depression and are subject to various kinds of abuses when kept out of school, and their peers. Key concepts in math and reading-writing should solidify during this impressionable period. No amount of screen-time can replace the live voice of the teacher in a live classroom.

The situation is identical in the UK as well. All schools have opened in the UK on March 8. They were open even earlier in certain areas. The UK contended that children are less affected by the virus and they are unlikely to spread it. The government decided to open schools realising that “children learn a lot by interacting with their peers and teachers, and this is the biggest loss in home-learning.”

Australia too was quick to recognize the impact of keeping schools closed. They found ‘huge gaps in the key milestones in learning’ when children stayed home with online lessons. Children from low socio-economic status are the worst affected by school closure. Their loss is difficult to rectify in the near future. Studies conducted by the Department of Education in Australia have found a few factors that militate against home-learning. They have identified the following divides-- material, digital, and parental-support divides are the chief of them. So, they believed that children were better off and safer in schools.

No wonder, Australian schools have been functioning almost uninterruptedly, especially after November last year.

On the basis of all these experiences, we need to examine with all seriousness the issue of opening kindergarten and primary classes in Karnataka.

Denying schooling to kindergarten and primary class children will have serious deleterious effect on their learning in the long run. Children’s integration into society happens while growing up with their peers, listening to their teachers, and interacting with them. Children’s academic learning and their personality development are hindered by the continued denial of school to them.

If schools for small kids are opened for a month or two during the current academic year, the huge gaps can be bridged to a certain extent. Secondly, the transition to the next academic year will be smooth and there will not be any more uncertainty. Indecision in the matter of children’s schooling is not a small matter. Of course, it concerns children, but it is not to be treated as a minor issue. It has major implications.

(The writer is Director, Little Rock Indian School, Udupi)