School Reopening- Part 3

[Third in a three part series on school reopening. Here we look at the challenge that the education system faces and how it could perhaps be converted into an opportunity.]

Minimizing the risk of COVID outbreaks is just one part of the challenge. The greater challenge is to engage the students who are returning to school, address the gap in learning level, and address the psychological needs of the students.

According to a report released by UNICEF (United Nations Children Emergency Fund), less than 10% students in India had access to online education during the pandemic. Other reports put the figure a little higher. Whatever the actual number, the reality is that the vast majority of students found themselves at the wrong side of the digital divide. Families did not have a digital device that could be used for online classes; those that did had to prioritize which of the children would get to use it; students that had a device had to struggle to find reliable internet; and after all those conditions were met, the screen was often too small for an optimal learning experience. It is safe to conclude, that except for a very small minority of students, practically no teaching or learning has occurred since the start of the pandemic.

During the time when there was no school, many of these children went into the informal workforce as child laborers. Though we do not have firm numbers, we know that many adolescent girls fell victim to child marriages. Though some of them might be able to negotiate with their families and re-enroll in school, for them, the opportunity cost of coming to school is high. Unless they feel they are learning something significant in school, they (and their families) may decide it doesn’t make sense to continue with an education and may therefore drop out of the school system permanently.

The vast majority of students have been promoted two grades without attending any classes. They will find it extremely challenging to learn from a grade appropriate curriculum without the benefit of bridge courses, and this might cause them to drop out in frustration. It is, therefore, imperative that teachers change their methodology of teaching to ensure that the students are able to learn, and the experience in school remains a safe and enriching one.

Even before the pandemic, there was a huge ‘learning gap’ between the expected learning level and the actual learning level. According to the Annual Status of Education Report released in 2018 (ASER, 2018), less than 30% students in grade 3 in rural India could read grade 2 level text, and by the time they reached grade 5, only half the surveyed students could read grade 2 level text. Similarly, in mathematics, more than half the students of grade 8 struggled with grade 4 level mathematics. Since literacy and numeracy are the basic skills without which other subjects cannot be taught effectively, this is a clear indication that not much learning was happening in India despite students getting automatically promoted at the end of the year.

This gap, which was already significant before the start of the pandemic would have been exacerbated by two other factors. Studies conducted in India and abroad have shown that there is a significant drop in learnings levels during the summer vacations due to disuse of literacy and numeracy skills. With schools closed for more than 18 months, it is safe to conclude that a vast majority of students would have lost even the limited skills they had acquired. At the same time, students have been automatically promoted, leading to an even wider gap in basic literacy and numeracy.

The single objective of the education system should be to address this learning gap in literacy and numeracy. Even if that is the only thing that is accomplished in the current academic year, it would be sufficient. The most practical solution would be to forego written examinations during the current year, and to use the year to reinforce the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy with the goal of ensuring that the gap is narrowed, if not completely bridged. By the end of the academic year, at least 50% of the students should be at age and grade level in literacy and numeracy, and the gap should have been significantly reduced for the rest. The pedagogy for bridging the learning gap exists, and appropriate workbooks should be printed and distributed to the students. The workbooks should be designed in a manner where they can be used under supervision in the classroom, and for self-study. Since the progress of students will be tracked as they proceed through the workbooks at their own pace, and will give them a sense of accomplishment and motivate them to continue.

Students who have a strong foundation in literacy and numeracy can be encouraged to mentor the other students. This will develop team work and communication skills, both of which are important life skills to learn. Since some of the exercises can be completed through self-study, adopting this model will also reduce the amount of time that students need to spend in school, thereby reducing overcrowding in schools.

Other subjects like science, literature, history and geography can be taught orally, so students with without sufficient literacy skills are not left behind. This can be done using a mixture of lectures, discussions and simple projects. Students with age/ grade appropriate reading and writing skills can be encouraged to dive deeper into the topic covered in the subjects. Grading for all the students can be done based on class participation and/ or project work.

By shifting the focus from completing the curriculum to strengthening fundamental literacy and numeracy skills, the system will ensure that all students are brought upto a basic foundation level. If this can be achieved in the current academic year, it will lead to a paradigm shift in the quality of education imparted to the students.

All of this will require a major shift in the way students are taught and what we want them to learn. The situation the education system finds itself in is unprecedented. If we rise to the occasion, it can be a tremendous opportunity; if not, we would have put our students at risk for questionable returns.

When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. — Alexander Graham Bell

Now is the time to seize the opportunity which has presented itself to us.

School Reopening- Part 2

[Second in a three part series on school reopening. This looks at the steps to be taken to minimize the risk of COVID outbreaks.]

Whether we like it or not, over the next few weeks, schools are going to reopen for all students. While some students might continue to have the option to take classes online or offline, the vast majority of them will return to physical schools despite the fact that none of them are vaccinated. The question now is, what next.

The education system will have to deal with two major challenges- putting in place adequate precautions to minimize the risk of COVID outbreaks, and developing appropriate curriculum and pedagogy to ensure optimal learning. Unless both these aspects are addressed, the entire school reopening exercise could end up being an experiment in futility.

Schools have re-opened in several other countries, so we do have a good idea of what works and what does not. It is imperative that we learn from the experience of these countries while framing the guidelines for school reopening. This would be a huge challenge in India given the fact that most schools in the country are overcrowded, and people have not yet internalized COVID appropriate behaviour. While all schools require of mandatory masking, double vaccination of teachers and staff, hand hygiene and periodic disinfection, this alone is not enough.

Each school would need to come up with specific processes, keeping in mind their own special challenges. In the broadest sense, this would fall into three main buckets- Awareness about COVID, adoption of COVID appropriate behaviour and setting up a safe physical environment.

By studying outbreaks across the world, it has been found that all other factors being the same, three situations contribute to the spread of COVID.

These ‘Three Cs’ which should be avoided are-

• Closed Spaces, with poor ventilation
• Crowded Places, with people nearby
• Close Contact settings where adequate distancing is not observed

It may not always be possible to eliminate all three in a school setting, but in order to minimize the danger of a COVID outbreak, each school should take steps to mitigate the risk from each of these should be mitigated to the extent possible. By conducting an audit at the school level, appropriate processes should be drawn up for individual schools and they should be clearly communicated to all staff and students.

All teachers and staff of the schools should be trained on how the virus spreads and steps to be taken to mitigate the spread. They should also receive training on the symptoms of the disease so they can take informed decisions on asking students to quarantine themselves, and should be aware of the myths around the disease so they do not get duped by wrong information. Post- workshop, teachers need to clear a test before they be allowed to take classes.

Prior to reopening schools, both parents and students should be also be made to undergo a session on adopting COVID appropriate behaviour, particularly on proper masking, physical distancing and hand hygiene. Students, particularly older students, should be made to understand how the virus spreads, so they can take adequate precautions. Parents should also be cautioned to not send their children to school if they are feeling unwell, and to inform the school of the same immediately so other students can be asked to quarantine if required.

Both the staff and students should internalize adopting COVID appropriate behaviour, and they should be total compliance. Everybody should be properly masked at all points of time, with the nose and mouth appropriately covered. Sharing objects should be discouraged, and if it is absolutely impossible to avoid it, hands should be sanitized both before and after touching the shared objects. If space permits, teachers can let individual students leave the classroom for short breaks if they start feeling claustrophobic with the masks.

Wherever possible, classes should be staggered so there are fewer students in the school building. This can be done either by operating in two batches, or by reserving a few days for self-study where students do not have to physically come to school.

Schools which can should designate separate entrances and exits and should try to regulate movement in corridors or on stairs in one direction only. This will reduce the possibility of people coming face to face with other people. If possible, some classes can be taken outdoors to increase safety.

The use of common facilities needs to be regulated to ensure reduced crowding. This can be done by staggering break times so the entire school does need to access them at the same time. Since students will not be able to keep their masks on while eating, lunch/ meal breaks should also be staggered to reduce close contact.

Exhaust fans need to be installed in classrooms which have poor ventilation, and schools were classrooms are airconditioned will need to invest in air-filteration systems.

Schools will also have to keep a supply to disposable masks to give out to staff or students in case of an emergency. They will also need to make arrangements for the proper disposal of masks and other bio waste, should it be required.

If all these precautions are taken, the risk of COVID outbreaks can be reduced to some extent.

Despite taking all precautions, there will be situations where staff or students get exposed to potential infection. In such cases, the school should work proactively to trace the people who may have come in contact, and ensure that they self-quarantine.

Most importantly, each school should make arrangements to providing learning support to students who’s family may not be comfortable sending them to school. This should be a no tech or low tech solution, so all students can access them.

Minimizing the risk of COVID outbreaks, however is just one part of the challenge. The greater challenge is to provide an education to students who have been out of school for so long they have probably forgotten most of the things they learnt.

School Reopening- Part 1

 [First in a three part series on school reopening. This examines why reopening may not be a good idea, and how we could have done better last year. ]

“Should schools reopen?”, is no longer a question up for debate. Schools have already reopened partially or fully in many states, and others are in the process of doing so too. Some states have given schools the flexibility to continue with a hybrid model, others have reopened only for high school students, but the reality is that unless there is a sudden spike in number of infections and/ or hospitalizations, by the end of the year every parent with children of school going age will soon have to decide whether or not to send their children to school.

One could question why we are in such a hurry to open up. Unlike this time last year, we now know that children below the age of 17 are also likely to get infected, and the symptoms can be severe enough to require hospitalization. It is no longer just a case of children being carriers of the virus and infecting grandparents and older relatives- we have seen how the capacity of pediatric ICUs have been stretched to the maximum and of how children have died of the virus. What then is the scientific basis for re-opening of schools, especially since none of our school children are vaccinated? There is none.

Unfortunately, it is not science that is driving the decision to reopen schools; the haste is entirely on account of sociological, developmental and economic factors. School closure and shifting to the online model has effectively blocked off access to education for millions of children of school going age. Studies have revealed that there has been a drop in learning levels among children on the wrong side of the digital divide. Most of these children have been pressed into child labour, and many have fallen victim to child marriage. There is a real danger of losing an entire generation of learners, which is why many are pushing the government for a reopening of schools. Medical doctors, who should be giving advice from a scientific/ medical perspective have, unfortunately, fallen for the rhetoric; they cite “our students cannot afford to lose another academic year” as the reason to reopen schools.

While there is certainly merit in the argument that students have already lost too much learning, and that further delays could potentially be irreversible, what most people are ignoring is the fact that reopening schools without putting proper procedures in place will only put millions of children (and unvaccinated members of their family) at risk.

Ideally, the issue of loss of learning should have been taken up and addressed last year. When India went into Lockdown, the service sector immediately moved to the online mode, and a few weeks later, private schools followed suit. While there were a few examples of the TV being used to reach out to students enrolled in government schools, for the most part, any teaching that was done was done online, using the Internet. Very few families had digital devices suitable for online classes, fewer still had reliable internet, and even those families which had both needed to prioritise which of their children would have access to the device.

Knowing that the vast majority of students would fall on the wrong side of the digital divide, an attempt should have been made to use other means of reaching out to students. Radio or TV have much better penetration than mobile phones, and either could have been used to reach out a much larger number of students.

More importantly, instead of merely reducing the curriculum, the Boards should have taken the decision to focus on reinforcing verbal and numerical skills. Given the fact that a majority of students do not have age/ grade specific verbal and numerical skills, this learning gap could have been bridged using a combination of self-study workbooks and on-on-one assistance from community level volunteers. Subject specific concepts could have been taught using either TV or radio. Students with age appropriate learning levels could have been taught concepts using a combination of self-study and TV or radio programs. Had this strategy been adopted, the pandemic would have proved a blessing by enabling India to address and bridge the challenge of the steadily increasing learning gap.

Unfortunately, all we did during the previous academic year was to shift what would have been taught in the physical classroom to a digital classroom. And today, we are left with a generation of students who have been promoted two grades, without attending a single class in over 18 months. The learning gap, which already existed, has now become wider, and it remains to be seen if and how teachers and students will be able to bridge it.

This, probably will be the greatest challenge to the education system.