Mere online edu doesn’t complete the purpose of schooling, rather it involves making our children into socially responsible citizens
The beginning of the year 2020 heralded an unprecedented change in the world of schooling. The joy of seeing children running around in classrooms and playgrounds was replaced by empty classrooms and playgrounds due to the Covid-19 scare. The vulnerability of our children and safety of our future generation prompted worldwide school lockdowns.
Online schooling replaced physical classrooms that have been instrumental in forging lifelong social skills. Teachers became just voices on the mobile phone and the wide-eyed children were relegated to the myopic view of the mobile screen. Physical activity and sports that built strength, character, willpower and the ability to deal with winning and losing are all missing for our children thus hampering their all-round development.
Mere academic evaluation through online education doesn’t complete the purpose of schooling, rather it involves nurturing of moral, emotional and physical growth in making our children into socially responsible citizens.
Online schooling ensured the safety of our children from the pandemic but it also brought various constraints on the accepted way of living in both, children and parents. The economically marginalized population had to incur the extra burden of mobile phone and internet connectivity. And then there still continues the basic issue of lack of connectivity, especially in rural areas forcing children to brave the sun, rain and other adversities in their attempt to get connectivity outside the safety of their homes.
Being cooped up within the four walls at an age when the outside world should be their arena has brought in a fair share of psychological issues in children and to a certain extent has affected parents too. Children are experiencing headaches, eye strain, neck and back problems, stress issues, psychological complications like mobile addiction, attention deficit, irritable behaviour, anxiety, mild levels of depression etc, thus goes the long list of disadvantages of online schooling but the advantage of protection from Covid far outweighs the drawbacks. Yet, we cannot also continue to be in a permanent state of school lockdown and it’s in this scenario that the Centre is now mooting the restart of physical schooling.
Although physical schooling is much desired for the overall development of our children, we need to tread the path very cautiously. A single wrong move will cause for loss of the biggest advantage of safety and yet it’s also time that we make the move albeit unhurriedly in a well-planned manner. We need to take lessons from those who have opened up and continue to do so and at the same time take warnings from experiences of those who opened up only to go back into a drastic closure.
The decision to open up physical schooling should not be political but should be determined by medical and social experts after taking cue from experiences of those who have returned to online schooling. Teaching and non-teaching staff should be sensitised towards the renewal of physical classes after a long hiatus. Classrooms and school premises should be Covid prepped for social distancing and sanitisation. Protocols should be in place for systematic handling in the eventuality of a student or staff being
infected.
The preliminary process of unlocking schools should begin much before the actual unlock. The virtual classrooms and online schooling sessions should be dedicated on a daily basis for a certain period to inculcate Covid-appropriate behaviour in children. Following unlock, wherever feasible, some or all classes could be conducted in the open-air taking requisite climatic precautions. With environmental concerns affecting the very existence of humanity, perhaps it’s time for our children to learn the lessons of life in proximity to nature, much like the ancient Gurukula system.
(The writer is a member of the Goa Legislative Assembly and represents Porvorim constituency)
