The outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first identified in Wuhan, the capital of China, in December 2019. Since then, has spread globally has been recognized as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020.
India is widely affected by this pandemic. The covid- 19 pandemic has affected the educational systems worldwide, leading to the near-total closures of schools, universities and colleges.
Most governments decided to temporarily close educational institutions to reduce the spread of COVID- 19. It’s almost two years that all the educational institutions are closed which is significantly affecting the students.
The lockdown is over long ago; everything is getting back to regular shopping malls, cinema halls are also reopening, and people are going for vacations. Yet when the question arises of reopening schools and colleges, parents are concerned about their children getting affected by the virus.
However, experts worldwide suggest that schools are not the super spreaders, but children are losing valuable time at a critical period in their lives. According to the reports presented by Annual Status of Education 2020, only 11percent of the students are attending online classes enrolled in both private and government schools rest, 21.5 per cent of students are using recorded videos.
Now, the government to take the necessary steps for reopening all the educational institutions. In reopening the educational institutes, the role of the government is enormous.
The government must show leadership, set up task forces, develop committees for looking and maintaining the covid guidelines, bring parents together, use science for decision making, and clear all the parents’ queries.
There have to be initiatives taken by the government to plan for reopening the schools and colleges. Many states are willing to open schools for older children in Classes 9 to 12.
However, children in the age group between 6 – 11 years are at the lowest risk of getting affected by COVID-19. The loss of learning for the younger ones is more acute than, the elder ones.
When the question arises about children, the government faces the dilemma. The Delhi government has sought parental consent for reopening the schools.
The governments should take the initiative in assuring the parents that even after the opening of schools, the options of exclusive online classes or a blended model that combines offline and online will still be open to them.
The planning and discussion for the opening of the schools should have started from the day when schools were closed in March 2020. We are almost two years late for this discussion, and we have lost a lot of time already and must not lose more.
The debate around school opening should be as frequent as the deliberations on the Covid-19 vaccination. Some of the closures were unavoidable, but the longer children stay out of school, they will continue to lose skills and not be adequately learned.
Governments should take the responsibility and hold themselves accountable, and take all the necessary steps to open schools as soon as possible safely, by maintaining all the covid guidelines.
