Health and Education- Both Are Important

 “You are working at an educational institution and have top priority for the COVID 19 vaccine, free of charge”, read a phone text message received by an elementary school teacher in Moscow. 

Moscow began distributing the Sputnik V COVID 19 shots on Dec 4, 2020, marking Russia’s first mass vaccination against the disease. So much has and is still being said and written about COVID 19, that talking any more about it might seem tiring, even futile. But the extent to which our current and potentially future lives are reeling under its continual impacts, the topic is nearly impossible to avoid. It has been almost a year now that the world is fighting this virus, and if there is one thing that we know for certain, it is that the repercussions will be long term and not confined to our physical health only. Different countries are facing different challenges and governments are trying to come up with varied coping up strategies. Matters worth discussing and contemplation range from economic to social to political, but I shall limit myself to the one closest to my heart, ‘Education’.

With UK and Russia approving the administering of COVID 19 vaccine to its citizens, I couldn’t help but notice the inclusion of teachers along with doctors, medical workers and social workers as those to be given top priority while being vaccinated. The decision of temporary closure of educational institutions as a proactive measure was a part of nation - wide lockdowns in most countries. The world had never before experienced such a dramatic impact on human capital investment. The decision was based on the assumption that opening schools will drive infections and closing will reduce transmission. But is it really that simple? Multiple studies in different parts of the world suggest sparse to no correlation between reopening of schools and a surge in COVID cases. The evidence to support national closure of schools to combat coronavirus is very weak but the harms of school closure, the profound economic and social consequences are pretty clear cut and huge.

The role of children in spreading the virus is not yet fully understood. So far data suggests an uncertainty about the degree to which school children are susceptible to and transmit the virus. Those under 20 years appear to be around half as susceptible as adults to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and much less likely to be symptomatic. When children do get COVID-19, there is also clear evidence that they are very unlikely to have severe illness or cause transmission. Together these data suggest that children, particularly primary school children, are likely to be among the safer groups to begin relaxation of social distancing. 

In contrast, the harms related to prolonged school closure are well documented. In addition to disruption in learning, these include reductions in physical activity and a range of impacts on mental health and well-being due to social isolation. Closure of schools has not just interrupted learning, but also led to poor nutrition especially for children from the vulnerable and marginalized families. Other indirect harms include social and economic impacts on teachers and parents. A prolonged closure of schools, especially for unknown durations has caused confusion and stress for teachers about their obligations and how to maintain connections with students to support learning. On the other hand, not all parents have been well equipped or prepared to facilitate the learning of children at home. Moreover, working parents are more likely to miss work in order to take care of their children at home. This has resulted in wage loss and tends to negatively impact productivity. And with online teaching still being a relatively new and evolving territory, the education system’s readiness and capacity to maintain student engagement and learning along with its measurement and validation is a challenge, causing a steep rise in student dropout rates.

I recently came across an article about Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare assessing the response of our government to contain and mitigate the novel coronavirus pandemic. The report is one of the first official documents dealing with the pandemic and its fallout. It makes a comprehensive assessment of the government’s handling of the crisis, and looks at almost every aspect. In its report, the committee has expressed concern over the confinement of the school going children due to prolonged closure of education institutions and equally at the existing digital divide in the country which has jeopardized the future of millions of students from the weaker section of the society. It has observed that with the shift in education method from classroom to online, the education of students residing in areas with poor connectivity has been compromised.

So am I suggesting the reopening of schools as a solution to all this? We might not yet be prepared for it or we might be. What I am suggesting is at least we find out. Simply going ahead and opening all schools is certainly out of question. But what I would like to draw attention towards is a more ‘solution finding’ approach rather than ‘all – or – nothing’ policy, for it is high time that we shift our discussions from the risk of opening schools to the risks of keeping them closed. A review of learnings from other countries' experiences that have already reopened schools might be helpful to our policy makers.

Countries like Finland, Denmark, Japan and Uruguay have successfully been able to reopen schools without experiencing a dramatic rise in COVID 19 cases as a repercussion. In Finland and Denmark, the decision of reopening schools was heavily based on the legal right to quality education. Authorities in both these countries recognized that although in the current situation, schools cannot guarantee that children receive education in all subjects they are entitled, extending school closure was not an option unless proven unavoidable. The reopening of schools required careful planning and major changes. Japan, which has mostly been able to keep the outbreak under control, took a conservative approach. Different schools had different strategies but generally students attended class in person on alternating days with precautionary measures being more stringent than in other countries.

Uruguay’s well organized and efficient public health system and their citizens’ strong faith in government is the reason for its success in stopping coronavirus. Uruguay was one of the Western Hemisphere’s first countries to send its students back to school. It started with reopening schools in rural areas where the student population was small but vulnerable, ie. the group struggling to access online education. Gradually, all the students started returning to school. Here again, an alternating schedule of physical and virtual classes was adopted along with strict social distancing and usage of masks. Other common practices in these countries include doing away with morning assemblies, sporting and cultural events, etc. Students have been forbidden from sharing food. Preventive practices like staggered student arrivals, much more frequent cleaning, seating arrangement keeping in mind social distancing, sanitization of the classrooms and educational materials, thermal scanning, etc have been adopted. Parents are not allowed inside the school campus and any child or parent who presents even minor symptoms are not being allowed to attend schools.   

While talking about success stories, it is also important to talk about those who could not succeed and learn from their mistakes. In France, Israel and few states of the US, the decision of reopening schools backfired, causing a huge increase in the number of coronavirus cases. But these nations are now trying to come up with new strategies to reopen schools for eg New York has recently opened its primary schools. 

There are enough examples of nations that have or are soon planning to reopen their schools. We might argue that most of these countries do not face problems that we do, but honestly, those grounds aren’t strong enough to believe that it is not yet time for us to consider the reopening. For instance, the spread of coronavirus in our country has been considerably low in rural areas as compared to urban. But due to closure of schools combined with the lack of availability of resources, infrastructure and internet connectivity in these areas, the students there have suffered the most. While most urban schools have been able to provide their students the option of online classes, not many rural students have had that alternative. According to UNESCO, approximately 0.32 billion students in our country have been affected by school closures due to the pandemic. Of these, almost 84% reside in rural areas and only a meagre, less than 36% of these rural students receive digital learning material of some kind from schools. The numbers are worrisome enough to take immediate actions. What might be a solution here is that our policy makers see this as an opportunity and prepare for the reopening of schools at least in areas where the spread of virus is limited but the number of children being deprived of their right to education alarmingly high. And although, we should not aim for a uniform policy to fit all, intermediate steps in places where situations are under control should be worked upon (just like how lockdowns are imposed taking into consideration area specific scenarios). 

What we need the most now is extensive research and reliable information and definitely for our policy makers’ to be willing to make informed decisions. Policies and practices of countries that have had some initial success with schools, point in the same direction. Correct information will help to slowly and effectively stage the reopening. Adhering to preventive measures like wearing masks and social distancing is critical, both in schools and surrounding communities.  Both officials and citizens need up to date data to continually assess the outbreak and change course of action quickly if necessary.

To conclude I would say that reopening schools in our country would definitely require a lot of research, planning, payoffs and risks but not thinking and acting along those lines might pose higher risks and higher payoffs. There will never be a perfect way to reopen schools during a pandemic. Even when a country has COVID-19 under control, there’s no guarantee that schools can reopen safely. But with elections and rallies and social gatherings (for limited people) being allowed and markets and places of religious importance opened, not opening schools (especially in rural area) is merely counterproductive.