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project-based learning and even the massive education repair job ahead
performing arts that are group-based of us.
activities. Locking children out from Diya Dasgupta on EMAIL
a school for 16 months confines the
developing mind to a life sentence,
pronounced by a thoughtless jury. Get the name right!
Lionel Cranenburgh WE ARE very honoured to be ranked
CEO, Shannon Quest among the country’s Top 100 non-
WESTERN AUSTRALIA autonomous colleges in the annual
EducationWorld India Higher Edu-
cation Rankings for the past three
Beware normalcy illusion years.
LET’S GET real before asking to However, every year the name
reopen our schools (EW July cover of our college is wrongly published
story). as City College of Commerce and
The only antidotes against Business Administration (Umesh
JULY 2021 Covid-19 are vaccination, double Chandra College) instead of Ume-
masking, testing and tracking. With schandra College. Please make a note
our current vaccination coverage and print our college name correctly
at a dismal 3.8 percent of the in future editions of the rankings
Crime against children population, we have a big score to league tables.
I READ your cover story demanding catch up with and our run rate has to Dr. Md. Tofzzzal Haque
reopening of schools right away, increase dramatically. Any illusion Principal, Umeschandra College,
online. I am an educator who had of normalcy is not the right thing. KOLKATA
only six years of uninterrupted Vaccination coverage is slipping
schooling. My father was an Indian everyday. This is the house we need
Army officer and we were transferred to put in order, before attempting to Mend syllabuses!
to non-family stations every few reopen schools. I AM a regular reader of Education-
months. I can avow, with deep regret Manoj Chakravarti on E-MAIL World. Your interview with author
that broken education, especially and academic Chinmay Tumbe (EW
in early childhood, has lifelong July) was an eye-opener. It is a rev-
negative impact. Schools in Europe, Massive repair job ahead elation that between 1817-1920 the
Canada and the US use numerous I FULLY endorse your cover story cholera, plague and influenza pan-
strategies, and even ‘attendance (EW July) which forcefully argues demics killed an estimated 40 mil-
officers’, to ensure that no child for immediate reopening of schools lion people in India. Yet it is amazing
misses school without valid reason, in India. The country’s 57-weeks- how little we are taught about pan-
as low attendance is a lifelong barrier long closure of schools — the longest demics in our history textbooks. This
to learning. shutdown of education institutions is why we are paying heavy price for
With the Central and state worldwide — has inflicted unimagi- official and societal mismanagement
governments in India having shut nable damage to children’s education of the current Coronavirus pandemic
down schools for 57 weeks, it is and their chances of successful fu- sweeping the country.
akin to a government-sanctioned ture livelihoods. Many surveys have Education ministry officials and
crime against children. Technology- highlighted that primary children’s school examination boards should
enabled learning is a tool; not a learning loss is almost 70-80 percent take note of this egregious omission
complete solution. Children need in 18 months, and learning gaps will from history syllabuses. Learning
individual, in-person attention that accentuate as we delay reopening from history is critical for prevent-
a computer cannot provide. There’s schools. ing and managing future pandemics
a plethora of research studies that Moreover, India’s huge digital better.
highlight the importance of physical divide makes it impossible for chil- Bansiprasad Dwivedi
and instructional play for children dren from low income households to NOIDA
in pre-primary and kindergarten access any real online learning. Many
years. There are significant areas of poor children have already dropped This is a discussion and debates fo-
children’s minds that are developed out of the school system and it will rum. Please send your points of views
through collaborative learning be a huge challenge to get them back to editorial@educationworld.in
with peers, discussion and debate, into school and learning. We have a

10 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2021