Here's what schools should do to be ready for reopening amid COVID-19
Education has both individual and societal benefits. The individual returns are in the form of future better employment, salary and living standards. The societal returns are in terms of higher productivity and contribution to the socio-economic development of a nation. Education and health expand capabilities and build human capital. The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting both. Though there is attention on strengthening health services, institutions of learning-schools - have remained closed for far too long.
Although the discussion on reopening schools has started, it is tentative, hesitant. So far, only 14 states and union territories in India have either partially opened or have announced plans to re-open schools, mostly for class 9 to 12 only. It is hoped that in the weeks ahead, more states will open for wider school age groups. When they do, bringing children back to the classrooms safely will be a key responsibility. This will depend on the engagement and participation of all key stakeholders and most on the schools itself.
How schools prepare for welcoming children to the classrooms will determine everything. Thinking in a structured way to prepare, engage, reimagine and improvise – in short, PERI – can help.
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Prepare for school reopening
The operational success will depend upon the school leadership. To prepare, the leadership of the school must first be convinced about the global evidence that schools are safe and that working together can mitigate any minimal risk.
School reopening should not be considered a binary (everything starts in schools or everything closed) or unidirectional (once opened, have to stay open). This - for many months to follow- is going to be a very dynamic process, informed by local disease conditions. First, the schools must open and teachers must start coming to school to get accustomed to conduct online classes from the schools. That will help understand challenges and adjust them to new practice. Schools may have to do needed modifications and arrangements. Then, children may start coming.
Schools will have to implement measures to sanitize commonly touched surfaces, increase ventilation, and reduce class sizes or stagger classes and drop-off. The suitable modification in school transports will also be needed. The lunch and other breaks need to be re-considered.
The school administration (principal and teachers) have the responsibility to communicate the evidence to parents and assure them about the safety of children. All staff in every school should be prioritised for vaccination. Teachers will have to play the biggest role in making schools a safe place. Therefore, they should be empowered with the right information to protect themselves, adopt COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and, as the primary interface between schools and parents, have confidence and evidence to answer queries of parents. Teachers, parents and students need counselling and information to get them back into physical classrooms.
In addition to the elected government (which decides the policies), schools are the other major stakeholders to assume responsibility and start the dialogue on reopening safely.
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With the opening of schools, the new challenge would be, delivering blended classes, with some children in the classroom and the rest online. Teachers' capacity must be built to make this transition smooth. This would require preparation.
Every school needs to make the key structural modifications required for proper ventilation and spacing inside the classroom. Conducting classes in open but shaded spaces should be considered. Periodically sensitising staff, students and parents in Covid-appropriate behaviour should become integral to the process.
Evidence from the US and Italy shows that schools do not increase the risk of infections. The studies have found that risk of transmission from child-to-child, child-to-teacher and teacher-to-child transmission is relatively low and similar or even lower than any other setting. However, in schools, there is higher risk of teacher to teacher transmission.
Nearly 90% parents of children in government schools in Delhi are willing to send their children to school. The situation is likely to be similar in other states. This is a big opportunity for government schools to lead the way. These schools cater to underprivileged children. Many kids in these schools do not have anyone to guide their learning at home. These schools should be prioritised and planning by the schools should be done at an accelerated pace. Similarly, in all schools, special attention must be paid to children about to enter the education system- those joining school for the first time.
The primary schools may have to prepare better to assure parents – the children in this age group are at lowest risk. The loss of learning for children in early classes is the highest. While older children can still benefit from online classes, can study independently and are allowed more screen-time, younger children who are yet to start learning and understanding the alphabets or numbers need more in-person guidance and peer-interaction.
Schools need to strengthen the linkage with health services, and the preventive check-ups and health promotion talks should become routine. The schools may consider engaging a doctor or health expert who could guide the process of opening and also answer queries of parents and teachers.
Schools mostly ask students to prepare; however, this is one time when schools need to prepare more than students.
Engage (with all parents and other stakeholders)
As schools prepare, they should simultaneously engage with all stakeholders, at every school level. Children and parents are key stakeholders who should be involved and contribute to the planning and preparation.
Parents must understand that schools are for a wide range of children and need to open for those parents and children who are willing to attend classes in person. Parents must have complete freedom of choice on the mode of learning for their child- exclusively online or blended learning of in-person and online classes. Irrespective of the mode, schools need to do everything to alleviate the fears and apprehension of every parent.
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In the time ahead, there would be far higher need for engagement and interaction amongst parents and school teachers, more as partners in school functioning. As the parents would read about news of increased cases- in any part of the world- they would get concerned. Schools have to be interface to address these genuine concerns. This may require more regular and formal mechanisms for interactions. Every such opportunity should be used to tackle misconceptions, address queries and concerns by bringing in experts.
Parents' associations should actively be involved in the process. Then, the schools need to collaborate with other schools and learn from each other. Meetings between different schools could be institutionalised. The experience from schools should be widely shared with state and district task forces to derive evidence-informed decisions. Learn from the experience of other states. These engagements would also bring transparency in discussions and could benefit far more than any verbal assurance and medical evidence.
The schools also need to engage with civil society and community members. They are important stakeholders, who can influence the discourse on school opening.
Reimagine, Innovate
If there was time to be creative and innovative in running schools and improving learning, it is now. The schools and education system need to consider the pandemic as a challenge for innovations in learning. The students themselves could be invited to come up with innovative ideas and solutions for future learning. The Indian government had released a new National Education Policy (NEP) a year ago and the challenge of re-opening schools can be converted into an opportunity.
Over the last few weeks, many ideas have been floated to make schools work. Once re-opened, classes would be fewer than the earlier routine — classes on alternate days, once in three days or even once a week—and there can be multiple shifts with reasonable breaks in between. The key is to bring children back for some personal interactions with teachers and schools. A hybrid of classroom and online teaching has to be continued, where parents would have full choice and in-person attendance would not be mandatory.
The proportion of children attending school on a given day can be determined by the school authorities in consultation with parents. Approaches such as a school bio-bubble, in which students of a specific class would not interact with anyone outside it, need to be explored.
There are many other areas for innovation once schools are reopened. The children would return for physical classes after a long gap. There would be a huge learning gap even in amongst the children in the same class. This is where more innovations would be needed. To close the learning gap, the concept of bridge classes and material must be explored. There are lessons from other countries on these issues. Instruction should not merely cover the curriculum but focus has to be on imparting skills on numeracy and literacy. Innovations on how to impart social, behavioural and communication skills would be needed.
Schools will face a very unique challenge. In a single class, there would be children with different levels of learning. All are likely to have been promoted but may not have achieved the same level of learning. Therefore, the teachers in schools need to be trained to work with children in the same class with different levels of learning. Some of the schools need to come up with university students, NGO volunteers and even retired school teachers or anyone willing to volunteer their time to support the workload on teachers and fill the knowledge gap for 17 months. We definitely need to be very innovative.
Improvise
While resuming schooling, the approach should not simply be starting with a reduced syllabus or rushed approach to cover what has been missed. The teachers and school principals have a bigger responsibility in this process and must improvise. Facilitators can be engaged to support the children in need of special attention.
There has to be a lot of attention on volunteering, a programmatic approach for next three years or so, to cover for learning losses. This has to be targeted for children of disadvantageous communities. Weekend support classes and volunteer driven solutions can be implemented. In fact, many parents and older siblings might be forthcoming to support these approaches. Regular sessions with health experts and professional counsellors should be considered. The retired school teachers, civil society representatives and other interested stakeholders could be involved to reduce the burden on schools teachers. There would be a need to collaborate and learn from good practices of other set ups.
Loss of education
The greatest long-term loss of pandemic arguably could be in the form of loss of education of children. This could arguably amongst the highest future social and economic costs of pandemic, to any nation. Therefore, we as a society need to do everything to re-start schools. We need to do this together, safety of students needs to be prioritized and apprehension of parents addressed, and schools need to ensure adherence to safety protocols.
Parents and children with access to broadband and the right devices have become accustomed to online classes. However, that is a minority sub-group. In India, 70 to 80% of students do not have devices and internet connectivity which can assure and facilitate learning. Schooling is for every child in the society and schools are much more than buildings. They cannot be replaced by impersonal virtual teaching. The schools represent the collective consciousness of a society.
The accessibility, affordability and quality of education (this is equally applicable for healthcare) reflect how much a society cares about its children. We need to do everything that is needed and it is time for schools to assume leadership.
Dr Chandrakant Lahariya (MBBS,MD), a physician and a trained epidemiologist, is a public policy expert with nearly two decades of work experience including that of working with the United Nations system, for 13 years. He tweets @DrLahariya and is available at c.lahariya@gmail.com, to respond to queries and concerns of the parents and school principals and teachers.
This is Part III of a four-part series on COVID-19 and school opening in India
Also Read || Parts I- Why India's Schools Should Open Immediately
Also Read || Part II- What Governments Must Do To Reopen Schools Safely Amid COVID-19
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.