New Delhi: Over 24 core school children have been affected by the closing of schools due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, said Anita Karwal, Secretary, School Education and Literacy Department, Ashoka University during a conference, “Future of Schools: Overcoming COVID and Beyond”.
“There are 24 crore children in the school education system across the country who have been affected by the closing of schools. The first thing we thought of was their mental well-being. We have launched the Manodarpan website, which has a lot of resources for psychological support. We are also working on a toll-free helpline for all students and creating a national directory of counsellors. In the second phase, we will also start an interactive chat platform for students,” she was quoted as saying in The Indian Express.
“There has been some outcry about the way in which this has been done. Some schools have just replicated their time-tables and we have students sitting for seven hours in front of the screen. There have been problems in which families have only one device, and we have seen some unfortunate incidents as well,” she further said.
Educational experts and officials at the national conference also showed their concern and said, India’s school education system is going through a crucial time. They focused on the requirement of a collective approach by schools in the ahead time to deal with the difficulties.
Director of N.H. Goel World School, Raipur, Shiladitya Ghosh, said, “Very few children are connected over WhatsApp. This has seen teachers connecting to students in whatever way possible. However, institutions need to gather themselves to reach out to students,” quoted The Indian Express.
“It will, of course, be done in a staggered way, and there will probably be some 25% students who will have to be in school with the classes televised to the rest. There will be protocols of different entry and exits,” said Shashi Bannerjee, Principal, Shiv Nadar School, Noida.