Counting the cost of COVID child damage

As schools and colleges shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic cautiously reopen, educators are confronted with challenges of repairing the academic, emotional and nutrition damage suffered by tens of millions of children countrywide – Summiya Yasmeen One year after governments around the world first discerned the pandemic potential of the Coronavirus (which originated in Wuhan, China in November 2019) and ordered the shutdown of industry, business, trade and education institutions for varying lengths of time, the world is still counting the cost of the most virulent global pandemic since the Spanish flu of 1914-19 which caused 50 million fatalities worldwide including 12 million in India. Preliminary estimates indicate that the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic 2020-21 will be massive. Already 102 million people worldwide have been infected and 2.2 million have succumbed to the deadly virus; the global economy has shrunk by 4.4 percent; 400 million full-time jobs have been lost; and incomes have fallen by 10 percent in the first nine months of 2020, equivalent to a loss of over US$3.5 trillion (Rs.255 lakh crore), a sum greater than the annual GDP of India. Yet apart from overt damage caused to industry, business and livelihoods, the rampaging pandemic has inflicted heavy damage to education institutions worldwide. Prolonged school closures in over 180 countries have shut 1.6 billion children out of classrooms, in some countries (including India) for more than seven months. World Bank forecasts indicate these children could lose $10 trillion (Rs.729 lakh crore) by way of income over their working lives. In India as well, the pandemic has inflicted heavy damage on the education system across the spectrum. The country’s 1.4 million anganwadis (government-run child nutrition and early childhood education centres), estimated 55,000 private pre-primaries, 1.5 million K-12 schools, 41,901 colleges and 1,028 universities have been shuttered for 11 months following a Central government order issued last March. While 2,500-3,000 top-ranked schools included in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings have responded to the pandemic challenge by switching to online learning-from-home classes, with a mere 8 percent of Indian households having access to Internet connectivity and digital devices, learning has almost stopped for the majority of India’s 260 million children and youth in primary-secondary education, especially in rural India with an estimated 30 million children having dropped out of school. Moreover with 200 million children enrolled in anganwadis and government primary schools deprived of nutrition and mid-day meals, pervasive child malnutrition poses danger of brain damage and stunting to millions of children. Now as schools and colleges are cautiously reopening for senior school students, educators are confronted with challenges of repairing the academic, emotional and nutrition damage suffered by tens of millions of children across the country. In the pages following, we assess the cost of the pandemic to Indian education under the heads of learning, health and nutrition, economic and mental-emotional damage. Academic learning loss Though past precedents have established beyond doubt that prolonged school closures result in critical learning loss, especially among poor and disadvantaged children,…