Impact of Pandemic on School Education in India

Paik, Saswati and Samuel, Roshan M (2022) Impact of Pandemic on School Education in India. In: COVID-19 Pandemic, Public Policy, and Institutions in India. Routledge, London. ISBN 9781003226970

Text
Restricted to Registered users only
Download (926kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has impacted human life in several ways. Additionally, it has resulted in serious threats to human development. Followed by the economic crisis, it has further triggered an anxiety for future generations. This pandemic is unique, considering the unprecedented scale of impact. The last pandemic of a similar scale was the Spanish Flu in 1918–20. Right before COVID-19, UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report 2020 stated that one-sixth or 260 million children (both adolescents and youth) across the world were not attending school (Sahlberg, 2020). With the pandemic, aproximately 214 million children globally have missed more than three-quarters of their in-person learning due to school closure (UNICEF, 2021). This cannot be ignored as ‘Preventing a learning crisis from becoming a generational catastrophe requires urgent action from all’ (De Giusti, 2020, p. 3). Since March 2020, schools in India were not physically operational owing to the pandemic, some states decided to reopen schools for select classes since the beginning of 2021; however, this couldn’t continue considering the advent of the second wave. In such a situation, it is important to highlight the educational crisis and related long-term challenges associated with children in India caused by the pandemic.

Item Type:

Book Section

Authors:

Paik, Saswati and Samuel, Roshan M

Document Language: