March 16, 2022
Md Nadimul Haque makes a Zero Hour mention on the impact of the closure of schools on education
Sir, according to ASER Major Findings Report for 2021 School Survey, nearly three quarters of all respondents said that they are currently having difficulty in teaching their grade. The most common issue was that children were unable to keep up with their grade-level curriculum, which account for 65.4 per cent of the total. In rural Karnataka, for example, the percentage of grade three students in Government schools who can perform simple subtraction has
decreased from 24 per cent in 2018 to only 16 per cent in 2020. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports released a report in August, 2021 that criticized the learning gaps caused by school lockdowns. It was “not only the loss of learning but also the loss of social contact and socialisation routine that were part of a student’s daily experience of life in schools and educational institutions”, according to the Committee. According to a joint report released by UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank in 2021, this generation of students around the world faces a loss of 17 trillion dollars in lifetime earnings in present value as a result of school closures. Given long school closures and erratic remote learning, the number of children living in “learning poverty” will rise sharply in low and middle-income countries, potentially reaching 70 per cent. The Government will first need to develop protocols for when to close and, more importantly, when to reopen. Second, more flexibility in funding resources at the district and school levels is required so that schools can comply with Government SOPs and support expenditures based on their needs. Sir, I urge the Government to take necessary steps.
