Page 54 - EW FEB 2022

Special Report

EDUCATION EMERGENCY

DECLARE 2021-22

ZERO ACADEMIC YEAR!

India’s prolonged 82 weeks lockdown of schools from pre-primary
onward is unprecedented in history. Even during the Spanish flu of
1918-20 which took a toll of 18 million lives, schools did not shut
down for more than 20 weeks. Extraordinary challenges require
extraordinary response

Summiya Yasmeen
T HE LATEST DIKTATS OF SEVERAL case for restarting 1.4 million anganwadis/preschools and

1.5 million schools countrywide.
STATE governments, especially
the Delhi state government to lock
It’s pertinent to note that in India schools have shut
down in-class learning for 82 weeks; in worse-hit UK they
down schools for the fifth time since
closed for 27 weeks, 12 in France and 27 in China (see box
the outbreak of the Covid-19 pan-
demic in March 2020, has belatedly
provoked public indignation.
lockdowns, India’s Central and state governments have re-
Suddenly, hitherto oblivious p.57). Although many countries restarted schools after brief
mained indifferent to the huge learning loss suffered by
television news channels, the main- the country’s vulnerable children. This despite numerous
stream print and social media have awoken to the plight of scientific studies highlighting that children are least suscep-
the world’s largest child and youth population (500 million) tible to Coronavirus infection (the rate of hospitalisation of
which has endured 82 weeks of education lockdown — the school-age children due to Covid infection is 1 in 100,000
most prolonged of any country worldwide. Belatedly, the — Dr. Joseph Allen, Harvard University) and shuttering
woke middle class is questioning the logic of all other sec- schools has negligible effect on limiting the spread of the
tors of the economy — industry, trade, travel and tourism, pandemic (WHO).
malls, cinemas and restaurants — allowed to resume busi- Astonishingly, the country’s Central and 29 state govern-
ness while schools remain under tight lockdown. ments have remained impervious to numerous studies of
Although your editors have been strenuously advocating international agencies including Unicef and Unesco, which
reopening of the nation’s classrooms for over a year, Edu- have repeatedly warned against alarming accumulating
cationWorld has been a lone voice in the wilderness. Last learning loss of children because of the protracted lockdown
July in a comprehensive cover feature titled ‘Why Schools of education institutions, especially preschools and prima-
Should Reopen Right Now!’ Your editors made a strong ries. The warning of foreign agencies apart, even studies

54 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2022