The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic badly affected the Education sector. The education of children suffered huge losses as result of this Pandemic. As the pandemic engulfed the entire world, it compelled the administration to close all educational institutions in March 2020, though teaching faculty were instructed to switch to online mode of teaching. Last year in March 2021, the administration decided to reopen schools and offline mode of academic activities were resumed but in the month of April 2021, second wave of Covid-19 intensified and schools were closed yet again and online mode of learning was switched. The use of online platforms such as Google Classroom, Zoom, virtual learning environment and social media and various group forums like Telegram, Messenger, WhatsApp and WeChat were explored and tried for teaching and learning for the first time ever to continue education. In the last two years school media platforms witnessed so many memes mocking the online teaching-learning and prolonged closure of schools. Jammu and Kashmir administration has now decided to resume offline classes from March 02, 2022. The order was issued after a review regarding COVID-19 cases and infections was conducted in the region. The lesson learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic is that teachers and students/learners should be oriented on use of different online educational tools. After the COVID-19 pandemic when the normal classes resume, teachers and learners should be encouraged to continue using such online tools to enhance teaching and learning. Staff in the schools have been advised to create an air of festivity in schools. Let us break the ice and pass on a message in the first week. There should be more play and more fun. The schools have been asked to organize one to one counseling with students, each child getting around 10 minutes. The first week of reopening of schools should be “celebrated as a week of happiness”. The first priority is to get all children back in schools. An estimated more than 168 million children globally have been shut out of any form of in-person learning in last two years. This figure does not include the children who have dropped out of school entirely as a result of the pandemic.
Experience from reopened schools around the world shows that schools can reopen, and take all possible measures to reopen safely, even when community transmission hasn’t been completely contained and vaccination coverage is low. Young children are not only less likely to transmit the SARS-CoV-2 virus than adults, but they are also less likely to suffer from severe forms of COVID-19 when they are infected. Besides children between the age group of 15-18 years are vaccinated to keep school children at the least risk of Covid-19 infection. Moreover, mitigation efforts like masking, physical distancing, ventilation, and hand-washing can effectively minimize disease transmission. All such Covid appropriate Behaviour measures are taken in consideration in our schools. Now, having lost months of instructional time, many students will need some remedial education. Let us use the experience in last two years to expand and mainstream remedial education, with a focus on foundational literacy and numeracy skills. To the extent that digital technologies can support these efforts. Tutoring schemes may or may not be tech supported but might be important. By the end of this year, it will be imperative to see countries reporting that their schools in each level of education provide this kind of support. In schools, children are also learning how to learn and how to react to setbacks; they are developing their social-emotional skills. Recovering months of learning loss will also be challenging for them, requiring self-control, perseverance, and a positive self-image. Like remedial education, social emotional learning functioned like a luxury good before the crisis but now must be mainstreamed to get children back on track. Teachers are on the front lines in putting out the fire, and they will need support to do this. They need to help children relearn what they should have learned in last two years schools. They will need training and possible additional support to implement remedial education and social emotional learning, as for many teachers, these will be new tasks. Similarly, teachers will likely need training on delivering instruction remotely or through hybrid approaches, as pedagogy for distance or digital learning would not have been part of their formal training. They need to receive a minimum set of tools and instruments to assess the learning levels of their students and estimate the support they need. Schools across the Valley are decorated to welcome children back to school. Let Us hope that Academic Excellence shall Prevail!
( The author is working as a teacher at Govt High School Brakpora Anantnag. Views are his own)
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