Coming Back To School

With the phased reopening of schools taking place across the country, there is nervousness about the threat to children’s well-being and the learning losses over the past year and half. We spoke with non-profits to understand how various stakeholders are bracing themselves up and responding to these challenges.

Since March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a strict preventive lockdown was imposed across the country. From May 2020 onwards, lockdown was eased in a phased manner – initially on a set of essential services. School reopening was delayed as it was seen as putting children and school staff at risk and potentially accelerating COVID-19 transmission.

By the end of 2020, the number of active cases was low, and the nationwide vaccination drive was rolled out in January 2021. There were recommendations to let children return to schools. By January and February 2021, a few states had allowed children appearing for Board examinations and in high schools to return to school in a staggered manner.

In March 2021, the signs of the second wave were timely observed by the school authorities and the subsequent closure of schools ensured that children largely remained safe. However, the closure of schools has caused learning losses among children. Their social and emotional wellbeing has also taken a visible hit during the pandemic.

From August 2021 onwards, schools across the country have started reopening in a phased manner, especially for the higher grades. There is a prediction of an impending ominous third wave that could severely impact children. Parents and school administration are nervous about the safety of children. The school system now has to evolve strategies to ensure that learning losses are bridged. The reopening of schools is being celebrated with caution.

Adopting an Individualized Approach for Children with Disabilities

The school reopening exercise is especially fraught with challenges for differently abled children. In this context, the work of Vision Empower (VE) assumes salience. VE is a not-for-profit enterprise that envisions making Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education accessible to students with visual impairment, irrespective of their socio-economic status.

It works across five states – Delhi, Gujrat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Tripura. It focuses on capacitating sighted and visually impaired teachers and students with tools, devices, aids, and educational materials that aim to make STEM lessons interesting and impactful.

Supriya Dey, Co-founder of Vision Empower shares, “In March 2020, teachers and children in residential schools for the blind were sent home. Children found it difficult to continue with online classes. These children either did not have smartphones or if they did, they were uncomfortable in using them.

Braille textbooks are rarely available for these students even during normal times. Consequently, their academic development suffered.”

The news of the reopening of schools for the blind is welcomed with wariness by the VE team. Supriya adds, “If it is safe, then children should be in school. We are aware that it would be difficult to follow social distancing norms in these schools. The threat of Covid transmission looms as the children need tactile learning support.”

The VE team is aware that the educators would have to pick up the threads of lessons from before and it might prove to be a Herculean task. The children, especially those in grades appearing for Board examinations, are worried about the setbacks in their learning process.

Supriya adds, “The respite in this situation is that special schools for blind students have a focus on play-based learning. They are not pressured to compete against each other and classroom lessons for them are joyful. We have not conducted any rigorous assessment of the learning losses of visually impaired children we work with. Hopefully, the learning losses, if any, could be covered quickly.”

VE has specially designed Teacher Instruction Kits (TIKs), that are guidelines for teachers of students with visual impairment on accessible and experiential learning of concepts covered grade-wise in the curriculum.

The TIKs cover mathematics and science concepts from Grade 1 to Grade 7. These kits are introduced to both visually impaired and sighted teachers. Classroom training workshops on TIKs were halted in March 2020 and the VE team had to strategize to continue this online.

Many blind teachers were uncomfortable in using smartphones. Thus, enhancing their proficiency in digital literacy was prioritized. Once these teachers gained confidence in using the digital medium to conduct lessons, the VE team resumed its initiative of capacitating the teachers with the Learning Instruction Kits in full swing.

The sudden order of reopening of high schools and hostels for blind students in September had taken everyone by surprise. The middle schools were opened in October. Attendance of children with visual impairments is dismal. Bringing a blind child back to school could prove to be challenging and requires concerted efforts by both caregivers and the school administration.

Supriya says, “With the decision of reopening of schools thrust upon them, the teachers are overwhelmed to adapt to face-to-face classes. For instance, in Tripura, teachers taking certain subjects were recently reallotted different subjects. Now, we will work with the teachers again to familiarize them with the new TIKs. We will have to alter our training schedule and ensure that the teachers do not feel overburdened with our training. They are nervous about conducting their classes effectively and the safety of their students.”

As students and teachers return to schools, the VE team hopes that the transition is seamless and safe. An individualized approach to understanding the support required for each disabled child’s return to school could be adopted.

Leveraging a Hybrid Model to Deliver Quality Education in Remote Geographies

The reopening of schools in the Union Territory of Ladakh was welcomed by students and teachers. The schools in the region opened after a gap of almost two years.

After the winter break in December 2019, the schools opened briefly in March 2021. But the second wave put a pause on the resumption of classes. Students in the region started returning to schools in a staggered manner only in August 2021.

rZamba, founded in 2017, is a non-profit working in Kargil and Leh districts to contribute to the fields of education, health, waste management, and leadership development.

Stanzin Saldon, who leads the organization, says, “The region witnesses harsh winters and consequently the schools get shut by December. The children from grades 6 to 12 returned to schools in August and September 2021.”

During the closure of schools, rZamba had launched Khangrtsa Yontan, an initiative that means ‘Learning at Doorsteps’ in Kargil and Leh districts. The youth in the communities and the teachers had stepped up to become Learning Facilitators at the community centers in their villages.

These centers operated from May 2020 till March 2021. When the second wave hit and resulted in the closure of schools, the rZamba team supported the administration’s efforts in providing learning resources and support to children. Context specific teaching learning resources were used to ensure that the learning of more than 4,000 children continued and remained joyful.

The reopening of schools in August 2021 started with the news of at least 56 students at a school in Leh district contracting Covid-19. It prompted the administration to shut the schools in Leh for more than two weeks. There was an emphasis by the district administration on strictly following COVID-19 protocols. Since this incident, the teachers in the region have been on their toes to ensure the safety of children.

The closure of schools during the pandemic exposed the gaps in Ladakh’s education system – poor telecom connectivity, low access to quality education, and lack of devices to continue with online education.

Currently, the number of COVID cases has fallen to single and double digits; but the stress of an impending third wave lingers. In this context, the administration and the rZamba team remain committed to embracing the digital revolution in the education system as well.

Saldon says, “We are in talks with an Ed-Tech company for providing the students with subscriptions of mathematics and science resources. The administration has arranged for 10,000 tablets for students in grades sixth to twelfth studying in government schools of Ladakh that will enable our children to continue learning online. We are also very keen on developing a continuous engagement plan for supporting teachers to adapt to this hybrid learning environment which is here to stay and might be the new normal.”

Now that schools have almost reopened for all the grades, through their ‘Whole School Transformation Initiative,’ rZamba is looking forward to start engaging with the schools and support the primary and middle pilot schools with their library processes and project-based learning approach. Ladakh’s harsh winters are almost here at the doorstep. The rZamba team is now preparing for Khangrtsa Yontan Phase 3.

The persistence of children, teachers, volunteers, community leaders, the administration, and the rZamba team to minimize learning losses is exemplary. One hopes that the community is better prepared now against future calamities.

Bridging the Learning Gap for Government School Children in Rural Bihar

Karunodaya Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that envisions ensuring equitable and quality education for children in elementary schools (grades 1–8) in Bihar.

They work with a range of stakeholders – government school teachers, education department officials, and the local communities, to address challenges related to quality education. Through innovative pedagogic interventions, they focus on improving retention and learning outcomes in government schools.

Schools in Bihar were closed in March 2020. They were briefly opened in January-March 2021. Due to the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic creating havoc across the country, these were again shut down.

Bikash, a co-founder of Karunodaya shares, “During the closure of schools, the response of the Bihar government was poor. In May 2021, they decided to initially broadcast classes for students from grades nine to twelve and later for grades one to eight on the DD Bihar television channel. The percentage of households owning televisions is just 14.5% in the state, which is the lowest in the country. It did not come as a surprise that this initiative merely helped a few children.”

Karunodaya worked with the District Education Department of Gaya to teach children online. Their approach involved designing content by putting together concepts of grades one and two, three to five, and six to eight together.

The videos designed for this purpose focused on simple activities for strengthening foundational concepts. These videos were circulated on WhatsApp groups through Block Resource Persons, Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators, School Headmasters and teachers of Gaya district. Through this initiative, they were able to reach 1500 children in around 120 government schools. In the meanwhile, only a handful of teachers continued to take classes via Zoom, Google Meet and WhatsApp every day.

Karunodaya facilitated the setting up of 50 community learning centers where a network of local women called Shiksha Sahelis conducted sessions daily for children in grades one to five. These two hours long sessions focused on minimizing learning losses. These tried not to overwhelm children with new concepts, most of the teaching was based on activity-based learning, storytelling and project-based learning.

Bikash shares, “Our activities focused on making learning enjoyable for the children, more contextual, and sharpen their critical thinking. We aimed at ensuring the emotional well-being of children, continuing their learning, and ensuring their foundational literacy and numeracy. For instance, number counting, addition, and subtraction were taught to children through activities using concrete materials such as sticks and stones. We reached out to more than 600 children.”

Even with reopening of schools, the Karunodaya team has continued these sessions in the community centres to complement teachers’ efforts as they might otherwise feel pressured to rush with their lessons. Bikash adds, “The learning loss has been severe. We are trying to ensure that the learning gaps are holistically addressed, and children do not feel pressured to catch up without understanding foundational concepts.”

Bihar Education Department’s initiative ‘e-LOTS Web Portal and Mobile Application’ launched in May 2021 also proved to be helpful for children during the pandemic. It has digital copies of all the SCERT books and uploads of short videos explaining concepts. The access to these resources enabled a few children to resume their learning.

In Bihar, there was a bridge course for three months designed for children across all grades. Initially, it was set to be launched in March 2021, but the second wave thwarted these plans. With the recent reopening of schools, this bridge course would now be followed.

Bikash adds, “The bridge course, through a structured approach, would help in overcoming learning losses faced by children. Some parents were able to support their children with their lessons. But most of the children were left without any robust support.”

With the reopening of schools, the health of students remains the topmost priority. Teachers were mandated to be fully vaccinated before they resumed classes. But poor adherence to social distancing norms and wearing of masks persists. Bikash shares that in each school one would witness merely 10% of the students wearing masks and adhering to social distancing norms. This could prove to be dangerous to the health of the children. The school administration needs to strictly follow COVID-19 protocols.

The Karunodaya team is worried about poor attendance by students. It has been mapping attendance levels to prepare a strategy to encourage children to return to schools. They believe that it would take coordinated efforts by all stakeholders to reach out to children and bring them back to schools.

In Conclusion

The positive news of launch of vaccines for children is rife. In the meantime, it is important to follow preventive COVID-19 protocols. It would be helpful if families and teachers communicate regularly with students to allay fears surrounding their well-being and school coursework.

Children are not a homogenous group. Their future is impacted by a multitude of factors – geographies they live in, socioeconomic status of their families, physical or intellectual disabilities and the status of the education system.

There must be a systematic assessment of the learning levels and emotional well-being of children and an approach that responds to the unique needs of each child must be adopted. The years in school are essential for the holistic growth of each child. We cannot allow the difficulties of the past two years determine the future of these young minds.