Newsletter on the Education Emergency
 
 
First meeting
 
First meeting of the proposed national coalition on the Education Emergency on Friday, 16th July from 3 - 6 pm, on BigBlueButton
Click here for details

 

What is the Education Emergency?
 

The catastrophic first and second waves of the Covid-19 pandemic have snuffed out thousands of lives. Lockdowns have destroyed the livelihoods of millions of people.

A silent and invisible emergency is also gathering strength and threatens to wipe out the livelihoods of poor people in India in the future and their access to a life of dignity and equality. In many parts of India, the public education system shut its doors to these students for the greater part of the last year, and will likely continue doing so in the coming year. Thousands of children who have lost one or both parents, and millions more who have been affected by the loss of jobs and income, will need to make a painful choice between working to support themselves and their families and coming back to school. School closures have aggravated malnutrition, child abuse, child labor, school dropout, and early marriage. This is what we refer to as the emergency in education.

 
 
 

 
 
Early marriages, child labour and school dropout
 
UNICEF warns that school closures, economic stress, job losses,  parental deaths due to the pandemic are putting the most vulnerable girls at increased risk of child marriage. Opening schools will provide safe spaces for girls and reduce chances of early marriages.
 
 
 
 
Health and Nutrition
 
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and our response to it has resulted in a series of small food shocks for children and adolescents with far-reaching consequences. The school midday meals is a part of the right to education, and an important  cause for better malnutrition that can enhance immunity against diseases.
 
 
 
 
Learning
 
A study by Azim Premji University, assessing 15,000+ children from Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand, identified that an average of 92% children lost at least one specific language ability from the previous year across all classes. For Mathematics, this figure was 82%. This loss is leading to a staggering number of children dropping out of school.

 

Our children of classes 3 and 4 were able to read, but now half of them have forgotten to read and writing has become worse.

 

(Teacher, Rajasthan)
 
 
 
 

Combating the Education Emergency
 

We need to encourage governments to consider varied set of approaches to address the education emergency. A complete and centralized lockdown, which was the first response in March 2020, is now understood to be too harmful. More complex, decentralized, and phased lockdowns and unlocks are the norm now. Likewise, the harms from continuous, comprehensive closure of schools far outweigh the risks. The opening and closing of schools needs to consider all risks and harms and allow for decentralized decision-making within overall guidelines.

 

We propose to bring together individuals and institutions that are concerned about school closure, into a national coalition, which can build awareness about and support the careful/phased school opening. The coalition can also support efforts to provide structured learning opportunities to students from marginalized groups. A platform to share experiences, ideas, resources across geographies, institutions and education systems can aid in this regard.

 

The education emergency also presents an opportunity to rethink how the public education system can be made more equitable, resilient and empathetic. Investment in public education must increase. There needs to be an emphasis on socio-emotional learning and education that is humane. More than ever, meaningful quality education is the only road to a life of dignity.

 
 

Please join in the first meeting of the proposed national coalition on the Education Emergency on Friday, 16th July from 3 - 6 pm, on https://b3.teacher-network.in/b/gur-g94-hyn
Join Meeting

BigBlueButton (BBB) free and open source webinar platform can be accessed on the link https://b3.teacher-network.in/b/gur-g94-hyn using a web browser, on your computer or your phone. If accessing on your phone, join using updated Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome browser" See short video on BBB to familiarize yourself. If you have any questions please write to info@educationemergency.net