Reopening schools cannot wait : Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore and UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay

A 13 year old student in Rayagada district who climbed to a hill top in search of mobile network to attend online classes died after slipping in August 2021. This incident is a tragic example of our children's desperation to continue their education. The children who are first generation learners in the tribal and rural pockets have no academic support at home and community, end up working in farm lands, shops, household chores, goat/cattle keeping works often.

I am a CSR professional and working in the space of elementary education with students from government schools in different academic capacities for the last ten years. Just before the pandemic hit, I moved to a tribal village in Sundargarh district and have been working with children from tribal villages through bridge courses to help them to improve their literacy skills. When we resumed our community teaching classes in November 2020 after a gap of 7 months after the first wave, we found young children have already forgotten what they learned. 

It's more than 18 months since the primary schools are not open and we have no clue when it will be open. The closure of schools has had serious consequences on children. But the bigger victims are the children from government schools who are mostly from economically weaker sections. By now we all know that these kids come to school not just to study but also to access required food and nutrition from mid day meals. It has greatly impacted children's physical and mental health, cognitive abilities with huge learning loss due to lack/restricted access to technology.

The recent study by Odisha RTE Forum and Save the Children found that only 10% of students can access online education. It has impacted worst to the tribal children who were taught through mother tongue based learning. Many villages still lack mobile network connectivity. As per the HT article on 19 Aug 2021, "Odisha Economic Survey of 2018-19, more than 20% of the 51,311 villages in the state do not have mobile phone connectivity. And internet penetration in the state is 28.22%".

I understand that pandemic is still around, but we now know that the daily count is approximately 500 cases in Odisha, more than 50% of them are in Khordha and Cuttack only. Odisha is a lot more beyond Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. On 26th Oct 2021, 22 districts have very less positive cases of below 10. There are many research that found children to be least vulnerable to the COVID-19. India Today article on July 31, 2021  mentioned that "Of all diagnosed child Covid-19 infections, only between 0.1-1.9 per cent resulted in hospitalization."

So it's a humble request to the honorable Chief Minister of Odisha and Education Minister of Odisha to initiate the following:

1)     Open all government schools from 1st standard onwards immediately for in person learning

2)     Leave the choice to the parents as to whether or not they want to send their children to school fully or partially, if they are concerned about their children's safety. 

3)     Ensure the children go through bridge courses to plug the learning loss

In fact, UN has also reiterated the importance of opening schools by saying "“This should not go on. Schools should be the last to close and the first to reopen". 

Our children, the future of our nation deserve better. If state government allows trainee teachers teaching students in groups in their communities, why cant the regular teachers teach their students following COVID appropriate behavior. 

#OpenAllGovtSchools

Image source: The petitioner has captured this on her way to field visits in July 2021 at Phulijhar GP, Lahunipada block, Sundargarh, Odisha