As per the latest government data, over a million children in the United States did not take admission in schools because of the coronavirus pandemic. A media report said that the steepest drop in admissions was reported in kindergarten schools.
The New York Times and Stanford University conducted a study analysing the data of around 70,000 government schools across 33 states. The results showed that 10,000 native public schools lost at least 20 percent of their kindergarten students in 2020.
The report said a majority of the decline in admissions was reported from areas where families are living below or near the poverty line. In these areas, the average annual family income of around four people stands at Rs 25 lakh or less. The report added that there has been a 28 percent higher decline in school admissions in such areas than in the rest of the country.
The report mentioned that in the Philadelphia school district, where a majority of the students are from low-income families, elementary education admissions plunged by more than 25 percent between the years 2019 and 2020. Apart from Philadelphia, Jackson and Honolulu were some other top cities where such decline was seen.
Even though Kindergarten schools are optional in many US states, experts believe that direct education in kindergarten is helpful for children as in these areas the conditions affecting the physical and mental development of children like autism are often detected.
According to the report, there has been a 42 percent decline in districts where there was complete online education. The report said that online education is one of the key reasons behind this decline in admissions.
Also, with the increase in the infections caused by the Delta variant of COVID-19 the concern of people has also increased.
