The on-again off-again classroom learning scenario has been ongoing since the Covid-19 pandemic threw normal life out of gear. It’s been more than a year now that it has been disrupting the education of tens of thousands of students across the globe. Children have been losing out on learning for too long. Impatience and frustration amongst the parents as well as the students is growing but resumption of in-class learning is not in the hands of school administration or even government authorities. It depends on the day to day situation. Schools in India started reopening last year after the situation improved but it had to be discontinued even before some semblance of normality was regained in the campus. The second wave of coronavirus hit harder than expected and there was chaos everywhere, forget about reopening of educational institutions. Why did the situation worsen within such a short span of time? It happened sooner than expected because of complacency. After the initial panic, people let their guard down when the cases decreased. Months of awareness efforts about the importance of maintaining Covid appropriate behaviour went down the drain. Health experts’ warnings about an impending second wave fell on deaf ears. Mass public gatherings including election rallies were held. People unmasked. It was all talk and no action, many preachers and no takers. This gave ample room for the virus to spread again, and more virulently during the second time. Humankind paid a heavy price for complacency. Lockdown repeated, educational institutions shut its gates again, patients flooded hospitals and thousands of families were left grieving and emotionally broken. People learned the hard way.
But the big question is whether the people have truly learned from the hardship. Going by the utter disregard of health experts’ advice and government guidelines, including wearing of mask in public places, it appears that many have not learned their lesson. Many continue to flout restrictive measures issued by the state and central governments despite warnings of an impending third wave of coronavirus by health experts and daily cases continuing to hover above twenty thousand. This poses a huge challenge to government’s efforts to resume classroom learning in order to minimise the learning loss of young minds. Several states have allowed schools to re-open. Nagaland government too has allowed resumption of in-class learning for students of Class 5 and above starting next month. This is a welcome move considering the incompleteness of online learning owing to various reasons, including lack of access to digital education and economic distress faced by many families. Online learning did help education to continue during these abnormal times, but for children in rural areas, learning begins and ends in the classroom. So, the best way to arrest possible increase in school dropout rate is by investing in teachers and resuming classroom learning. However, it’s just a matter of time before schools are closed again if people continue to flout Covid-related guidelines. Health experts have warned that children could be affected more in the third wave of coronavirus. Thus, people should follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, at least for the sake of children- for their safety as well as their education. Children should get back to the classroom.