Not only adults, but children too are desperately hoping to return to pre-COVID-19 times. Schooling is more than just learning and writing exams. Children are waiting to run in their school playgrounds , hop onto swings, and high-five their peers. They are never happy about being kept away from school for long.
Many concerns
As we debate when schools should be re-opened in India, it is important to also ask how children and teachers are going to respond to the reopening of schools. The debate on the pros and cons of online education must now shift to how school spaces can be made safer and hygienic to counter community infection. There are various kinds of schools in India: rural and urban, government and private, single-sex and co-educational, and so on. Within them, there are multiple categories. For example, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Army Schools are very different from schools managed by the State government or municipal corporations in terms of infrastructure and management. One cannot visualise a pan-Indian response of the school system to reopening. Similarly, children’s response will also vary according to their age. A six-month gap for primary school students may be huge to counter, but may be easier to overcome for older children. We must discuss how these months of disruption and the so-called continuity of learning through online education will affect learning, teaching, the environment and culture in schools once they reopen.
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David Ingvar, a noted Swedish neurobiologist, talks about “memory of the future”, which refers to “alternative hypothetical behaviour patterns in order to be ready for what may happen.” We as pedagogues must ready ourselves for what may happen once schools reopen. How will children respond to the idea of physical distancing in school? How will they sit apart or adapt to using school washrooms or playgrounds? How are teachers expected to maintain discipline? How are the movements of children in school buses going to be regulated? These are concerns which need to be thought about. These questions will be more complex if schools decide to open in phases.
Then there is the problem of children being forced to drop out of school. This pandemic has put many schoolgoing children out of school. It has impacted children’s lives far beyond health. India has seen large numbers of people, mostly poor migrant workers, returning to their native places, so classrooms may not be full. Since many people have lost their income, they will be spending less on education. Given the state of the economy, the state too is expected to spend less. As a result, children and their education may be affected for long after a vaccine is found. The pandemic could bring on extreme poverty which will stop children’s access to school. It is known that poor children are pushed into income-generating activities and early marriages. We must discuss how to prevent such a situation.
Episodic memory
All of us, and children especially, will have an episodic memory of these times. Episodic memory, or a person’s unique memory of a specific event, diminishes with age, but children have episodic memories for long and are impacted by it. Children are now confined to their homes, scared of the unknown danger lurking outside. The fact that they constantly hear of infections and deaths and are told to maintain physical distancing will affect them and how they respond in the classroom. Moreover, the emphasis on online learning will also affect offline learning. The need for creative fulfillment will be severely impacted too. When schools reopen, teachers will have to be prepared to deal with all these issues which are not part of any teacher preparation programme.
The episodic memory of this pandemic time will affect the learning and memory of children. Tulving’s theory of memory distinguishes semantic memory from episodic memory. Evidence from neuropsychology suggests that these two types of memories don’t operate in isolation but are interdependent. For example, our ideas of family, society, and the nation as matters of general knowledge are influenced by our experiences of them. This pandemic has its own share of vocabulary which will contribute to a newer language.
We must be prepared to deal with the many challenges that will come with reopening schools. Our lives, brought to an abrupt halt by this pandemic, must not be abruptly started again. It should be a smooth transition. Otherwise, it won’t just accelerate the spread of the virus but also severely affect our children’s future well-being and learning.
Navneet Sharma is faculty, Department of Education, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamsala. Views are personal
