The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as the biggest disruption to humankind in the last 50 years. According to current trend of virtual learning, It has become clear that learning cannot happen within four walls of home. It has wider scope and diversified techniques which needed attention.
Let’s state the facts and understand what government has meant by the HYBRID mode of education and how it looks at education in a closure view. Recently, UNESCO, UNICEF and the world bank has released a report on education crisis and plans for its recovery. Which briefed about COVID-19s adverse effect on education and states that the number of children going to schools has reduced invariably to pre-pandemic level.

COVID WILL LINGER

Even though parents and children are getting accustomed to offline mode of education with a passage of time, there are reports of an uptick in COVID-19 cases in Indian states including a few cases of children testing COVID positive.

This has again whipped up parents to go back to virtual mode of learning. Lest they forgot that COVID-19 has engulfed into the society and trickled down into masses. COVID-19 will persist as long as humanity goes on and come up with various settings. Not only children but adults also succumbed to COVID during the pandemic and by adjoining scientific linings, we learnt that it is equally effective in Children and Adults but what is see there is that only 7-10% of Children got infected to COVID. So, we must accept the challenge of grave threat and learn to cope up with it not by closing schools and demanding for it as it not only the solution after what children has gone through. It’s time for economic recovery and learning recovery post pandemic.

How future is holding up?

• Firstly, Education department in every state should lead the process as to ensure that every school in every district to see that no child has dropped out from the education system, and that every eligible child is enrolled.
• Special attention is needed for the enrolment of all children, especially poor, girls, backward, rural, urban slum-dwellers.
• Secondly, the learning loss during the last two years is humongous and learning recovery should be priority of every government
• There has to be focus on the need to assess the learning level of children and then strategies accordingly
• It is also time to consolidate curriculum and increasing teaching time.
• To ensure such efforts, schoolteachers will need support and the training to accommodate the learning levels and needs of children.
• India has very motivated teachers in public and private sectors, It’s right time to support them, they can contribute better to society.
• Innovative approaches and participation of civil society organizations working in the field of education need to be explored

Looking at pandemic in rear view mirror, it is time that subject experts must examine the recommendations made in the National Education Policy in context of pandemic related challenges and fresh operational strategies must be developed and implemented in an accelerated manner.

In India, government spending on education accounts less than 4% of GDP Which is almost half the average for the education spending of low- and middle-income countries. Time has come for both the union and state governments in India to increase the financial allocation for school children.

Story of my Junior Kanna

There are incidents that mental health issues of school children have doubled during the pandemic period, I have personally seen Kanna growing up, a boy in my neighbourhood and junior at school from Hyderabad perished after a minor mental health fatality. Who has always been a proactive child and veritable basketball player, dodged me several times and escaped ball to basket. Incidents such as these are reminiscence of mental ill-ness and time to show considerable interest in this point.

Mid-day meals have resumed after a gap, which is still a basic nutrition for more than 45% of children in rural India. A significant regulation must be done to deliver it to these dependents. I would like to conclude it by saying that even though children have been confined to four walls, it can’t persist for longer period of time because it had always been a land of Vedas and Rishis, we created world’s first university, we always have had this bond between Guru and his disciple. So, we must restore back to physical classes in par with COVID guidelines issued by WHO. Support families and ensure that no child had left unattained. Also give them basic fundamental right to education under (Article 21 of the Indian Constitution). It’s not only the role of government but also people. So, we must start acting first.