Opinion: Why India’s Schools Should Open Immediately

There is sufficient evidence that vaccination of children is not a prerequisite that opening of schools does not pose additional risk to children or family members and the benefits outweigh any minimal risk. An urgent priority now has to be to develop a plan and roadmap to open schools safely.

India is amongst the few countries where schools have been closed for the longest due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end-July 2021, around 175 countries had opened schools. In many, including France, Denmark, Portugal, and the Netherlands, most schools – especially primary schools - had remained open even at the peak of the pandemic or were closed only for a very short duration. Seventeen months into the pandemic, there is abundant evidence of the damage the prolonged closure of schools has done to the children. UNESCO has estimated that every month away from school results in a learning loss of 2 months. The last 17 months have set children back by almost 34 months. An Asian Development Bank analysis has pointed out that every year of schooling lost is equivalent to 9.7% less earning in the future. There are many studies on the impact of school closure on learning. A McKinsey report concluded that school shut down in the second quarter of 2020 put students up to six months behind their cohort in academic milestones in comparison to peers who attended in-person classes. The loss of learning was higher for Mathematics than reading and highest amongst the disadvantaged groups. A study from the Netherlands found that while studying from home, eight to 11-year-old children made limited or no progress in learning with disadvantaged groups performing the worst. There is evidence of the impact of school shutdown on the emotional and mental health of children. During the pandemic, children confined to home experienced challenges within the family and abuse. In the US and UK, studies have reported an uptick in student suicide and children starting on anti-depressant. A UNICEF India report in May 2020 noted that parents of one third of primary-school and half of the secondary-school children noted that their child’s mental and socio-emotional health had been compromised. The ChildLine helpline number received 50% more calls, many for protection or related to child marriage.