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Classmates have grown taller, school looks better, say ecstatic students on return to classes

Schools in Delhi reopened for classes 9 to 12 on 7 February and for from nursery to class 8 from 14 February. Government schools have much higher attendance than private schools.

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New Delhi: Fourteen-year-old Najma, a student at the Jangpura Co-ed Secondary School, wakes up at 4 am every morning to cook and take care of her ailing mother. With the reopening of schools in Delhi, the Class 7 student now has some time to just be a child as she started attending classes from Monday. Her fellow students, like her, are overjoyed to be back in school.

Following a prolonged closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic, schools in Delhi reopened for classes 9 to 12 on 7 February. For classes from nursery to class 8, schools reopened 14 February. Schools across the country have remained shut for long periods of time in the last two years. In Delhi, schools were open for classes 6 to 12 only for brief periods of time since March 2020. According to government records, schools in Delhi have remained fully suspended for around 94 weeks — a staggering 658 days.  

However, since schools reopened, government schools in the city have registered a much higher attendance of students than private schools. 

Many children like Najma attended school after a long time Monday. Joyous and ecstatic, the students now spend their days comparing notes on how things around them have changed and how life has changed as a whole. 

Speaking to ThePrint, Najma said, “I lost my father and elder brother during the two lockdowns, my mother could not deal with the grief and is now bedridden. She used to clean houses in the nearby colonies, but now I have had to do the job due to her ill health.”

“It’s a relief to be back in school,” said the teenager who is elated to be back amongst her friends. School hours, moreover, gives her a respite from her duties at home — cooking, cleaning and doing her mother’s job. 

The school has changed a lot from when Najma last attended physical classes. The building is more colorful, with mathematics and grammar charts adorning the walls.

A little farther ahead sits 11-year-old Shaheen Farheen, a Class 6 student. 

For Farheen, learning had stopped during the pandemic. Owing to her father’s poor health, her family had shifted to a relative’s house in Faridabad, about 23 kms from her school, making it difficult for her to collect work-sheets that teachers handed out during lockdown. 

“My father has a small phone, so I could not study during the lockdown. And since we were so far away I could not get worksheets. I am so excited to be back among my friends and start studying again,” a delighted Farheen said, adding that all her classmates have grown taller since the last time she met them.


Also read: Why did Delhi delay schools reopening? Unvaccinated kids, travellers & tweak in plan are reasons


‘Response from parents positive’ 

According to the Delhi government order, schools are free to decide on the number of students they want to accommodate, based on their infrastructure, but keeping in mind Covid protocols. The reopening of schools has seen a mixed response in government and private institutions.

While government school teachers say that attendance is hovering between 70-100 per cent within a day of reopening, private schools are still struggling to register even a 40 per cent attendance. 

Charts and posters have made classroom walls colourful at the Jangpura Co-ed Secondary School | Photo: Soniya Agrawal | ThePrint

Sant Ram, a teacher at Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in West Delhi’s Subhash Nagar, said that they have about 70 per cent attendance in batches, but it was not due to lack of enthusiasm from students. He said, “We are calling students at 50 per cent capacity as of now. We only have classrooms for only 50 per cent of students, after making arrangements for the required Covid protocols.”

Students in the primary section are very excited to rejoin school, he added. 

Harish Chandra, principal of Jangpura Co-ed Secondary School, said that he had to trace many primary school students and inform them about the reopening. He said, “Since many families had gone back to their villages during the lockdown we had to trace some of them to get them to school. The response from parents has been very positive.”

Attendance in private schools 

While attendance in government schools has been good, private schools are yet to see that kind of high turnout. Most parents ThePrint spoke to said they are exercising caution and would only send their children to school from the next term. 

Prashaant Sethi, parent of a Class 9 student at DPS RK Puram, is yet to send his son to school. “We will send him to school in the next session, we don’t want to take any risk now since year end exams are to be conducted soon. As of now, he will continue to study from home since he has grown accustomed to self study and online classes,” said Sethi.

Alka Kapur, the principal of Modern Public School in Shalimar Bagh, too, said that attendance in the school has been low. 

“There’s a set of parents who still don’t want to send their children to schools due to lack of transportation and say that their child will self-study. We were hoping to see a good turn out as practical exams for senior students are about to start, but we have only seen about 30-35 per cent attendance,” Kapur told ThePrint.

It is the primary sections which have seen better attendance, she added. 

Ritu Mehra, the principal of Apeejay School in Sheikh Sarai, is satisfied with the 40-50 per cent student turnout that the school is witnessing. 

She said, “We knew that not all students will come in once schools reopen. Since exams are to start in less than a week’s time, a lot of students are preparing from home.”

Learning loss due to Covid

The two years of pandemic induced shutdown of schools has had a negative impact on students. Studies indicate that students have lost out on a major chunk of learning.

A study conducted by Azim Premji university found that on an average, “Ninety-two per cent children have lost at least one specific language ability and 82 per cent have lost at least one specific mathematical ability from the previous year across classes 2 to 6.” 

Another study by the Boston Consulting Group found that “a student who lost a year of learning will only be able to recuperate in 9-14 years”. In other words, a year’s loss in learning will have a lingering impact in terms of shortcomings in learning for the next nine-14 years, before it gets back to an ideal level. 

Access to online education was another problem that children across the country face. 

The Annual Status of Education Report 2020, released in February 2021, showed that the proportion of children not enrolled in any school in the five-eight age group increased by four per cent in 2020, compared to 2018. 

Another report released by ASER in October 2020 found that only one-third of India’s schoolchildren were attending online classes and that only 32.5 per cent were accessing the classes live. The survey also noted that only 8.1 per cent of all government school students were attending online classes.

(This report has been updated to correct the percentage of children have lost at least one specific language ability — it should be 92 per cent, not two per cent. The error is regretted.)

(Edited by Saikat Niyogi) 


Also read: ‘Outdoor classes, radio lessons’ — govt teachers suggest hacks as 3rd wave shuts schools again


 

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