Children learnt new skills during pandemic: Report

Though students may have lost out on academics, they used extra time productively, finds survey

Over the past year, governments and organisations conducted multiple surveys to assess and quantify the learning losses that students incurred due to the pandemic and multiple lockdowns that threw the academic schedule out of gear. The Karnataka government has conducted a similar survey, but one that focused on what students did with their spare time, and found that a majority of them developed new skills or honed existing ones, most of which are extracurricular in nature. The Department of Public Instruction surveyed 3,672 students from classes two to ten, and found that many learnt new skills such as singing, dancing, art work, swimming and gardening. Some took to knitting, cooking, cycling and engaging in reading and writing for leisure. Many children in rural areas said they enjoyed outdoor activities like climbing trees.