1.8 Trillion Hrs School learning lost globally: UNICEF
Abrar A. Mattoo
SRINAGAR, Sep 24 : When the nationwide lockdown was imposed in February Last year and the schools across the country shifted to online learning, J&K’s 28’750 schools had already witnessed almost six months of closures post abrogation of special status on 5 August 2019, and to date, 2’531’329 children (1260284 in Government and 1271045 in Private Schools) continue to remain absent from the schools for the past 25 months.
According to UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund), the pandemic has cost school-going children around the world an estimated 1.8 trillion hours ‒ and counting ‒ of in-class learning.
On Tuesday, September 21, ahead of the 76th UN General Assembly, UNICEF unveiled a No Time to Loose clock in a classroom setting at the UN Visitors’ Plaza, in front of the General Assembly Building. The clock is a real-time counter/reminder, displaying the growing cumulative number of in-person learning hours every schoolchild in the world has lost and continues to lose since the pandemic’s onset. Worldwide, 27% of the schools remain partially or fully closed at the moment.
“My Son Inam-Ul-Haq has not even attended a single In-person class ever since he was enrolled three years ago. He’s been attending the classes online, and I doubt that he would be ready to join the in-person classes any soon,” a parent, named Aijaz-Ul-Haq said while speaking with Kashmir Despatch.
Mr. Aijaz further said that he has witnessed that online classes have a detrimental effect on the health and well-being of the children because the screen time for the children has immensely increased.
“While we as parents have put mobile phones in childrens’ hands, on the pretext of online classes, the children spend the majority of their day playing and watching videos on their mobile phones. The outdoor activities, necessary for the development of body and mind, have substantially decreased for the children,” Mr. Aijaz added further.
While the screen addiction of the children is a major concern for the parents, experts say that online classes do not serve the true purpose of educating the children.
“Education means a holistic development of the child, it involves all sorts of activities from sports to ethics, to arithmetic to everything else. Online classes are not a feasible option for this sort of education,” Dawood Naik, an educator, commented while speaking with Kashmir Despatch.
The experts say that the online classes and the reduction in syllabus compromise the value of the degree. Beginning with the floods in 2014, five out of the past seven years have been periods of unrest in Kashmir, resulting in an immense loss to education in the valley. In view of the lost in-class learning, the reduction in the syllabus has been a recurrent affair during this time.
“We cannot lose a whole generation to the pandemic. Students in Jammu and Kashmir have suffered manifold, first due to the lockdown post abrogation, and then due to the pandemic. After the abrogation, not even online education was available for the children for a long time,” G.N. War, president of private schools association, Jammu and Kashmir, said while speaking with Kashmir Despatch.
G.N. War further said that the schools should be re-opened and the government must make a decision that favors the student community of Jammu and Kashmir.
“At the schools, its quite possible that the students would be impressed upon by the teachers and the management to follow all the SOP’s; speaking thus, the opening of the schools is not as worrisome as opening the parks and other public places,” Mr. War further said while impressing upon the government to consider opening the schools for the betterment of the student community.
While the government has opened the colleges and universities on sept. 10 for vaccinated students, it remains to be seen whether any similar decision would follow concerning the lower and upper primary schools. Upon repeated attempts made by Kashmir Despatch, the director of school education, Kashmir, Mr. Tassaduq Hussain was not available for comments.
