Page 56 - EducationWorld Feb 2021 Low

Special Report

number of primary school children edented shutdown of primary schools
in class V who cannot read and com- nationwide for over nine months is
prehend class II textbooks has risen certain to deepen extant urban-rural
— rather than reduced — to 56 per- and rich-poor divides in Indian educa-
cent, and the percentage of class VIII tion. “Almost 24 million children from
children who can solve a simple three- marginalised households have already
by-one digit division sum is a mere 40 dropped out of the public education
percent. The prolonged shutdown of system. They will enter the child la-
schools because of the pandemic is bour force and/or become vulnerable
likely to exacerbate and widen exist- to trafficking and/or pushed into early
ing learning gaps. marriage. It will be a huge challenge to
Dr. Rukmini Banerji, CEO of get them back to school and learning,”
Pratham Education Foundation, ac- says Ambarish Rai, national conve-
knowledges that “even before Covid nor of the RTE Forum, a coalition of
hit us, this wide diversity of learning over 10,000 NGOs, educationists and
levels has been a chronic problem of social activists gathered under the fo-
our classrooms for years” and that rum’s banner to enforce the Right of
when schools reopen “it is likely this Banerji: 3Rs rebuilding call Children to Free & Compulsory Edu-
variation of learning levels in each cation (RTE) Act, 2009.
grade will have widened further; the in partnership with Pratham has re- In states where schools have ten-
lower end of the distribution will have sulted in 14-17 percentage point learn- tatively reopened for senior students
become thicker”. Banerji recommends ing gains for children in a period of (classes X and XII) this month, teach-
several “simple steps” to begin the 60 days. This experience implies that ers in government and private schools
process of bringing children back on if focused efforts are made, in a few have begun bridge courses in right
the learning track. months children can gain more than earnest to provide remedial education.
“ FIRST OF ALL, CHILDREN we strongly recommend a 100-day fo- of learning. As schools reopen, teach-
what they gain in a year. Based on this,
“Most children have lost one full year
cused campaign to rebuild basic read-
and teachers need to recon-
ers will have to pull out all the stops
nect with each other. After
such a long period of school ing and arithmetic skills of children,” to make up for lost time. Simultane-
she advises.
ously, they need to provide emotional
closure, students need to get back into Learning loss apart, the unprec- support to children to enable them to
the routine of teaching-learning pro-
cesses. Once attendance has stabilised
and children have settled back into Pre-crisis & Covid-19 LAYS
school, teachers need to do one-on-
one simple assessments of reading 9
and arithmetic levels. To help children 8
catch up and make up for their learn- 7
ing loss, it is essential that instead of
being guided by the grade level of each 6
child, teaching at the right level ap- 5
proach needs to be adopted to enable 4
children to move up from their current 3
levels, strengthen their foundational 2
skills and go ahead towards their
grade level,” says Banerji, an alumna 1
of the Delhi School of Economics, Ox- 0
ford and Chicago universities. -1 Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka SAR
Moreover, Banerji recommends -2
that state governments adopt focused
foundational learning improvement Notes
programmes to make good children’s LAYS: Learning adjusted years of schooling
learning loss. “In Uttar Pradesh, a Pre-Covid LAYS
Graded Learning Program 2018-19 Covid LAYS
implemented by the state government SAR=South Asia Region has lost 0.5 years of learning Source: World Bank

56 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2021