BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government's silence on reopening of schools is beyond inexplicable. Many states with far higher COVID transmission rate have thrown open educational institutions. Others have already announced reopening from February 1. But, the Naveen Patnaik government continues to 'wait and watch'. No one knows why.
The answers come from a minister who has no semblance of a clue and the bureaucrats won't say a thing. This, when more than half a crore students have not - a miniscule part has barely about - seen their schools in the last 20 months.
The children's loss is, obviously, no one's business. The economy has to be brought back on track; livelihood must be restored and politics must continue but education is not a priority.
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Back in 2020 when COVID struck and there was very little understanding of a pandemic of this magnitude, the shutdown seemed appropriate but now, it is baffling. There is little science or logic behind not reopening schools. Every sphere of activity is open.
Markets, malls, parks, hotels, restaurants, bars and even cinema are open and children are exposed to the virus just like everyone else. What harm have the schools done?
On the contrary, the children - barred from physical classes - are being harmed way beyond repair. Close to two years of learning is lost while the impact on their cognitive development cannot be assessed fully.
The latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021 for Chhattisgarh says percentage of students unable to recognise English alphabet at elementary levels doubled in 2021 as against 2018. This must ring a bell.
Yet, the State government finds ways to stick to online learning system despite poor outcome. There are about 67 lakh students in Class I-XII and only about 33 per cent had access to online learning. Last year, the total views on online channels by Education department were about eight to 10 lakh. The figure has plunged to 1 to 2 lakh now.
Private schools have similar stories. Parent of a student in one of Bhubaneswar's most expensive private school says the school management used to send weekly attendance reports. It has now stopped in face of a sharp drop in attendance.
The less spoken about government institutions, the better. In a government junior college in Cuttack, Class XI students have been given online class timings but none turns up to teach most of the week. What to say about students in remote pockets, where education is at the mercy of access to mobile phones, patchy internet.
No one is talking about the entire gamut of damage this young generation is staring at. The loss of well-being, social interaction and engagement in peer environment is irreparable. Social skills, another crucial aspect, is compromised.
The continuous closure of schools has also ensured that a whopping 49 lakh students in elementary levels get their mid-day meal (MDM) money transferred to their parents' accounts as food security allowance.
It defeats the very purpose of a targeted intervention meant to supplement nutrition. There is no way to track how this allowance was spent and who benefitted. Besides, allegations of pilferage are rife. Schools are the only place where psycho-social behaviour of children can be tracked. It also protects them from domestic violence and sexual abuse. The damage inflicted must be minimised.
In the midst of an unprecedented education crisis, the State is set for panchayat polls where at least 50,000 school teachers will be engaged while thousands of students remain deprived of learning. When the first wave of COVID struck, Odisha was the first to announce lockdown and took pride in it. One hopes it would not be the last to reopen schools.