No more school closures

The schools and colleges in Karnataka which were opened in several phases from January 1, were shut down last Wednesday due to the hijab-saffron shawl row. Regardless of the fate of the hijab case in the Karnataka High Court, the closure will only exacerbate the crisis due to losses that have been caused to education in the State. It is learning that takes the big hit.

With final exams staring in the eyes, schools had barely offered a month’s physical coaching, before they were closed by the government in the wake of the controversy. There are apprehensions as to what the court would decide and how it would impact the sides engaged in acrimonious exchanges.

Schools are mandated to function for at least 210 days in a typical academic year. But since March 23, 2020, when the first lockdown was suddenly slapped on the nation, educational institutions have functioned for less than 90 days between March 2020 and December 2021 thereby causing massive gaps in learning, mainly to those in junior classes.

In a media interview, Nobel Prize winning economist from the MIT Mr. Abhijeet Banerjee had warned that simply reopening schools will not be enough. Not measuring the learning losses and taking steps to reintegrate children into the system will be a recipe for disaster. Banerjee who heads the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP) set up in July 2020, had advised that schools should be the last institutions to close and first to reopen, given the relatively low risk of transfer and the high cost to young people.

A GEEAP study had noted that while recovery in all other sectors hit by the pandemic is easier, the damage caused due to the learning gap is catastrophic and permanent as it impacts children’s well-being and productivity for decades. Foundational skills being the primary building blocks for further learning, their capacity to cope with school curricula is heavily impacted due to disruption in classroom learning.

Even ‘IT for Change’, an NGO in the State had urged the state government to reopen schools as early as August last year stating that for most of the children (80% plus) online education is simply not possible and long closure of schools would seriously hamper the progress of children. It even aggravated malnutrition and children from underprivileged sections had to miss their hot-cooked meals served under the midday meals scheme which used to be the only nutritious meal for them.

All sides must initiate measures to see that educational institutions are spared any and all kinds of campaigns that may lead to further closure of schools and discontinuity of education.

The State Government’s proposal to utilize the summer vacation for filling up learning gaps, should also be welcomed in this context.