Need to resume schools

Schools have been shut since mid-March last year due to the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. For the last 16 months, educational institutionshave been shut and students' education disrupted.

For a sizeable segment, it has been a period of no learning. Most of the schools have adopted online education for students as mode of study. But the access to digital learning has been patchy and a large number of poor students from low-income groups have no access to instruments necessary to access digital learning and cannot afford to have resources of learning tools. And prolonged closure of schools will heighten their risk of loss of learning as well as dropouts.

Most of the countries responded to the school closure with a variety of learning modalities including fully remote learning or hybrid learning, as well as other measures to mitigate potential learning losses. Preliminary evidence suggests that students affected by the school closures are experiencing an absolute reduction in learning levels or shower progress than expected in a typical year. That's why reopening of schools for physical attending of classes cannot wait.

The Covid -19 pandemic has adversely affected students' academics at all levels. As the new academic session is all set to start, one of the main questions among worried students is when will school reopen? As the Covid-19 cases begun to witness a declining trend in India, it is high time the government should consider reopening of schools and allow the students to attend the class with strict adherence to Covid 19 protocols. State governments and local authorities must work with the schools to ensure complete vaccination of teachers and support staff. School administration must put in place remedial learning options to make up for lost time.

KS Rao, Thane