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Cover Story

WHY INDIA’S SCHOOLS SHOULD

REOPEN RIGHT NOW

The balance between children’s safety against the Covid-19
pandemic and their right to protect their future livelihoods
needs to be restored. The national interest demands no more
time is lost in restarting India’s long shuttered schools with
adequate safety protocols

Dilip Thakore

L been the focus of official and media at- ing 1.6 million government anganwadi centres); 1.5 million

OSS OF LIVES AND LIVELIHOODS HAS
primary-secondaries (including 450,000 private schools)
with an aggregate enrollment of 260 million children; and
tention for the past 15 months since
39,931 undergrad colleges and 979 universities with a to-
the deadly novel Coronavirus began
tal enrolment of 39.4 million youth, for over 15 months.
to spread countrywide in March 2020.
However beyond official declarations
and media headlines, 21st century In-
population by way of loss of learning during the past 56
weeks — the longest shutdown of education institutions
dia’s already ramshackle education sys- The damage suffered by the world’s largest child and youth
tem that has long under-served the world’s largest child and worldwide — has not been adequately assessed.
youth community estimated at a massive 500 million, has According to a detailed Unesco study titled Education
suffered further damage. Now, even as the national drive from Disruption to Discovery (2021), the prolonged clo-
to vaccinate 1.3 billion citizens against the malignant virus sure of primary-secondary schools in India of 56 weeks and
is gathering momentum and daily infections and fatalities counting, is in sharp contrast to Russia’s 13 weeks, China’s
have declined from a peak of 412,000 and 3,980 on May 6 27, UK 27, France 12, South Africa 37 and Tanzania 15. Only
to 48,786 and 1,005 currently, this is an appropriate time the US (56 weeks) and Brazil (53) have shut their schools
to measure the extent of damage to the education system for as long.
from preschool to Ph D, and strategise ways and means to However, it is pertinent to note that the US and Euro-
repair it. pean countries are far ahead of India in terms of children’s
Thus far, the Union and state governments have availed access to Internet connectivity and digital learning devices.
the soft option of a comprehensive lockdown of all cam- According to a recent study conducted by the India office of
puses and classrooms of over 2 million preschools (includ- Unicef (School Closures in the Context of Covid, 2021), 42

40 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2021