Page 27 - Education World Nov-21 Low 81.6MB

especially hesitant to send primary mary schools were the first to restart says Niranjanaradhya.
school children given that vaccination because it’s well established that Meanwhile, with all the state’s
of children has not yet started and a youngest children are least susceptible 49,116 government schools having
third post-Deepavali pandemic wave to Covid-19 infection. reopened from class I-X, teachers are
is imminent. N i ran j an aradhya V .P , senior grappling with the challenge of ad-
“Parents are hesitant about send- fellow and programme head, Univer- dressing huge learning loss suffered
ing children to school as there is wide- salisation of Equitable Quality Educa- by children over the past 19 months.
spread apprehension that without tion Programme at the National Law The A nnual S tatus of Educ ation
p
vaccination children are susceptible to School of India University, Bengaluru, R e ort ( A S ER ) K arnatak a 2 0 2 0 of
the virus, which is still very much out believes that it’s important for the the globally-reputed Pratham Educa-
there. For instance, in my daughter’s state government to urgently engage tion Foundation, says that children
school, out of 200 children enrolled with private schools and parents to statewide have suffered massive loss
in class VII only 20 attend daily. Par- address campus reopening challeng- of learning during the 60-week lock-
ents and students have become accus- es. “In-person schooling is essential down of schools. It reports that 56.8
tomed to online schooling. The atten- for the all-round development of all percent of class I students surveyed
dance is slightly better in high school children. Government must take pro- could not recognise/read Kannada
c
as children have to write board exams, active steps to initiate dialogue be- language alphabets ( f. 40 percent
but parents are not yet willing to send tween the education ministry, parents in 2018); only 34 percent of class V
youngest children to school,” says and school managements to get on- students could read a class II text (c f.
R i t hu Drav i d, parent representative campus classes going asap. There are 46 percent) and 42 percent of class I
of the Sophia High School, Bengaluru. many RTE s.12 (1) (c) quota children students could not recognise numbers
This reluctance of even well-edu- in private schools. They have already from one to nine ( f. 30 percent).
c
cated, upscale households to resume suffered severe learning loss because Nevertheless, educationists state-
in-person classes, which it’s now they couldn’t afford digital connectiv- wide are relieved that the first step
proven provide far better education is ity and devices at home for over 60 towards return to normalcy has been
perplexing as worldover — especially weeks. Further delay in restarting in- taken.
in developed OECD countries — pri- person classes will hit them hardest,” Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru)

NOVEMBER 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 27