Covid-19: Challenges galore for schools to reopen

Single class room, high student load, poor water availability are the biggest challenges for school reopening

With more than 53,000 schools in India being single class room units, observing social distancing norms would be the biggest challenge for the government when it decides to reopen the schools in the post Covid-19 scenario.

As per the government's own district information system for education (DISE) statistics, as many as 53,533 schools in India are single classroom schools.

India houses nearly 15 lakh schools and in one-fifth of them, the student classroom ratio is 35 and above, making it almost impossible for the school to follow any kind of social distancing norms if all students turn up.

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Moreover in 8.3% schools involving 1.3 lakh pupils, more than 50 students sit in one classroom, according to a report prepared by two non-governmental organisations, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) and Child Rights and You (CRY).

While availability of water is essential for frequent hand washing to ward off the virus, only 52% schools have overall water, sanitation and hygiene systems such as drinking water, functional toilets and hand wash facilities in place.

“It will be tough for the government to decide on the schools’ reopening in the absence of social distancing and running water in thousands of schools,” Priti Mahara, director of policy research and advocacy at CRY told DH.

To compound the problem, there are around six lakh teachers of age 55 years and above serving the school education system. Public health experts said that because of their age, such teachers are more vulnerable to Covid-19.

Since the majority of schools have a single staff room for all teaching and non-teaching staff, maintaining the social distancing norms would be equally challenging for the teachers.

As a part of Unlock 4.0, the government has allowed students from class IX to class XII to go to the schools to seek guidance from teachers provided they carry a no objection certificate from the parents. The University Grants Commission has fixed November 1 as the date for reopening of colleges for the freshers.

But there is still on official word on when the schools will reopen.

However, the government may not be able to delay the process for an indefinite period because of the adverse impact of such a delay on the education, which is already being seen. There is a growing digital divide in the online education system and the school drop out rates are likely to increase, more so for the girls.

The school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic could lead to a million more girls and transgender children dropping out before they complete their education. Due to the lockdown and economic recessions in households, it is likely that household responsibilities on girls will increase and even those enrolled in schools will drop out.

Such instances of gender disparity are already being seen. “My daughter has a classmate from an economically weaker section of the society. Her father is an auto-rickshaw driver and can afford only one smartphone. So it is given to the online classes for the son because of which my daughter’s classmate missed out on most of her classes ever since the lock down began,” said an East Delhi woman who didn’t want to be identified.

“In any case secondary education for girls was always challenging. The pandemic has made the situation even more difficult for them because of the clearly visible gender divide,” noted Mahara.