After nearly two years, schools in Odisha have reopened. This is a much-needed move that will help students get their education back on track.
Children everywhere in the world have missed going to school during the pandemic. While children have missed learning, they have also missed out on the fun and interaction with friends and teachers and have faced the risk of declining mental health. While reopening of schools is a first strong step to normalise education, there is a need to also put in place measures that can make the transition successful for everyone involved including students, teachers and parents.
Covid's Unprecedented Impact on Education
The Covid-19 has caused unprecedented disruption to education. Children and youth in every corner of the world have been affected, but the most marginalised have been the hardest hit, magnifying the deep inequalities in education.
Evidence from all over the world has shown that remote learning has been far less effective than in-person learning. In Odisha, disadvantaged communities especially in remote locations have not been able to support digital learning for their children. With prolonged closure of schools many of these children, particularly those who are first generation learners, have suffered learning loss with some even having forgotten how to read and write.
For these children, the crisis could have lifelong impacts. Interrupting education services also has serious, long-term consequences for economies and societies such as increased inequality, poorer health outcomes, and reduced social cohesion.
Learning Loss and its knock-on effect
For children, going to school is much more than learning lessons. Schools are important for children’s physical and mental health, development, safety, and well-being. Meals provided in schools are an important nutritional input particularly for children from poor households. Without school meals, many children face the risk of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Another critical aspect of going to school is the daily interaction with peers which is very important for children’s psychosocial health. Physical activity and play time during school hours ensure children remain fit physically and there is a healthy mind and body balance.
Being away from school for prolonged durations can expose children to neglect and abuse and can increase the risk of being pushed into child labour or child marriage. The longer the child is out of school, the less likely they are to return. Children from the poorest households are already almost five times more likely to be out of primary school than others. Such children also bore the brunt of the pandemic much more than those from families that had assured means of sustenance.
Odisha’s Innovative learning Initiatives
Since the start of the pandemic Odisha has taken leadership in implementing innovating learning initiatives to ensure continuity of learning benefitting many underprivileged students. Children from rural regions and tribal communities benefited from the Alternative Learning and Mentorship Programme which reached out to 3 lakh students in remote areas as teachers took learning to the doorsteps of these children. Trainee teachers were also pressed into service through the Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) as they conducted classes in rural areas and honed their teaching skills and also ensured children remained connected to learning. Similarly, the ‘School Sanjog’ initiative for children of primitive tribes integrated entertainment and learning to ensure young children were better prepared to resume learning in schools once they opened. More recently ‘Mo School Abhijan’.
Accelerating Learning Recovery in Schools
A recent joint report by the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO has termed the reopening of schools as an opportunity to accelerate learning recovery and make schools more efficient, equitable, and resilient by building on investments made and lessons learned during the crisis. There is a need to shift from crisis to recovery – and beyond recovery, to resilient and transformative education systems that truly deliver learning and well-being for all children and youth. Many steps have been taken to make schools in Odisha safer and more resilient for students as they come back to classrooms. Water and sanitation hygiene facilities have been ramped up and provisions have been made to avoid crowding. Masks have also been made compulsory for students and staff. With the ongoing vaccination for 15 to 18 year-olds, protection against COVID is growing among students and this is building greater assurance among parents and teachers.
The Way Forward
Simply reopening schools will not be enough. Students have been away for more than a year and will need tailored and sustained support to help them readjust and catch-up after the pandemic. Once children are safely back in school they would need tailored services to meet their learning, health, psychosocial well-being, and other needs. Children, particularly those from marginalized families, will need support to catch up on lost learning. Many students will need some remedial education with social and emotional learning incorporated into regular teaching. Also, teachers would need to be prepared and supported to address learning losses among their students and to incorporate digital technology into their teaching. Teachers will need training to implement remedial education, social emotional learning, and on delivering instruction remotely or through hybrid approaches.
The pandemic has no doubt derailed the education system but has also forced us to think how learning systems can be made more robust and resilient to shock and how technology and new age methods can be integrated into learning. Only when we use the crisis as an opportunity to build back better will we serve the interests of present and future students.
(The writer is Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Odisha)
