A policy analysis document, ‘Impact of COVID on School Education in India’, published by NGO Child Rights and You (CRY) and Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) has highlighted that it is crucial that governments provide enough fiscal support for ensuring equitable and effective access to education for children.
The document has been prepared on the background that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic looms large on the education of children. As per recent data, closure of schools has affected a whopping 320 million students in India (UNESCO, 2020). At the same time, according to global estimates, no less than 24 million children – amongst whom 5.95 million are from South and West Asia – are at risk of not returning to school next year (UN, 2020).
Over the last six months, the pandemic has brought to fore some of the pre-existing gaps in public provisioning of education in India. The shift from classroom-based teaching to digital teaching has left out a large number of children, who do not have access to the infrastructure required for participating in online education.
There are also apprehensions that many of the children who have been excluded from school education during the pandemic may not be able to return to schools again; and, even if they do, a large number of children would not find a level playing field anymore.
The document highlights that the prolonged economic crisis in the country and the serious challenges in revenue mobilisation and Centre-state resource sharing indicate the possibility of substantial ‘budget cuts’ for a range of sectors. Hence, it is imperative to significantly focus on protecting the already insufficient budgets allocated for provisioning of education to children along with safeguarding the budget support promised for health and other social sectors.
To discuss some of the critical policy issues and practical challenges relating to public provisioning of education for the children within 3 to 18years during and beyond the pandemic, CRY and CGBA organised a webinar that brought together academicians, policy experts, civil society leaders and child rights defenders.
Priti Mahara, director, Policy, Research and Advocacy at CRY said, “Humanitarian crises tend to hit the most vulnerable children the hardest, and COVID-19 is no exception. It is evident how it has impacted school education, created digital divide, limited access to social welfare, and compromised health and nutrition schemes provided through schools. To address the ‘new normal’ in the education sector and to universalise education, adequate public provisioning will play a very crucial role.”
“The insights and suggestions emerging from the discussion will be collated and shared with the Union and state governments with reference to the processes of revision of budget allocations for the current fiscal year (2020-21) and preparation of fresh budget estimates for the fiscal year 2021-22, which will be under way very soon,” said Priti.
Reflecting on the need for transformational increase in public provisioning for child education, Protiva Kundu, additional coordinator (research) at CBGA, said, “Chronic under-allocation in school education has made the system fragile. A mere re-prioritising of the existing quantum of budgets for school education would certainly not help. The overall direction of allocations should not only be limited to addressing issues arising from the pandemic, but should go beyond.”
Venita Kaul, director, CECED, Ambedkar University and Kiran Bhatty, senior fellow, Centre for Policy Research, also spoke. Rajesh Kumar, CEO, Lokmitra, UP, shared experiences from the field.
Some of the issues highlighted in the document and discussion are as follows:
Increase in out-of-school children during and post COVID-19 period
Widespread unemployment and income loss due to the pandemic will hinder ability of the households to pay to keep students in schools. Providing scholarships, allocating more resources for survey in identifying out of school children by the government, budgetary interventions to mainstream out of school children of 15-18 years age and extending the RTE Act to cover children in the age group of 15-18 are required.
Disruption in school meal services affecting nutrition of 6-17 years children
As the schools closed across the country, 115.9 million children lost access to mid-day meals (MDM). To cater to the hunger of millions of children who depend on MDM as their source of only nutrition, the government needs to devise newer ways of delivering meals as long as schools are closed. Also, MDM coverage, including the breakfast scheme, needs to be extended till secondary level, through significant increase in the MDM budget in the current and forthcoming financial years by the government.
Online education reinforcing digital divide and learning inequality
Due to the closure of schools to ensure safety of children, teaching has moved to digital platforms. However, remote-learning comes with a set of challenges, including access to basic digital infrastructure and exposing children to multiple cyber related crimes like explicit or violent content, hacking and cyberbullying.
To ensure no children are left behind in education, the government should distribute text books, free smartphones/laptops/tabs to all school children; states should provide free data packages or reimburse the cost of data, which would also require substantial investment to strengthen digital infrastructure.
Children lose out on early childhood care and education (ECCE)
Pre-schools play a crucial role in laying the foundation of a proper psychological, physical and social development of a child. The closure of schools and other institutions that provide early childhood care and education continues to pose an immense threat to their holistic development potential.
Hence, until anganwadis reopen, systems need to be developed for ensuring delivery of early childhood education; doorstep delivery of supplementary nutrition in the form of cooked food or take home ration for young children and government should adequately invest on these aspects.
Disproportionate impacts of school closures on marginalised children
Even though remote learning strategies aim to ensure continued learning for all children, it is well known that the most marginalised children may not be able to access these opportunities. Measures like making upward revision of scholarship amounts for marginalised children, developing inclusive learning solutions, especially for the most vulnerable and marginalised sections of the society, and substantial resource allocation from both Union and state governments are needed.
