COVID-19 Impact: Back to school in half-filled classrooms

The post-pandemic world beckons — and the answer we must. As of May 2020, many European and Asian countries have started opening up different institutions in the economic and social sphere, including schools. However, the children are going back to a new kind of school — where masks, social distancing and personal hygiene are the “new normal”. Children take turns coming to school as only half the students in a class attend on a given day. This enables social distancing not only in the classroom but also in the buses, labs, sports field, and lavatories.

In India, one hopes that the schools would reopen as soon as it is safe to do so, based on the trends in virus-spread across zones. Here is some crystal gazing to grasp what lies ahead and predict the possible impact on students, parents and teachers.

Even though it would be for only a few days per week, parents would be mostly happy to see that their children, who have cooped-up for months and stuck to digital screens, go back to the classroom and meet their friends. During the lockdown parents intimately saw the relationship children have with their gadgets and the impact of non-stop consumption of digital content. At the same time, a majority of parents also witnessed how children learned outside the school environment. Seeing children self-studying or attending online classes, parents now appreciate the connection their ward has with his or her teacher, with community, and with their buddies or classmates.

All is not rosy with school re-opening as many parents are still fraught with the anxiety of the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Others may find it is heartless to send children to school while many of adults continue working from home. Needless to say, attendance rates may remain low in the initial few weeks. When faced with such anxiety, it is helpful to know that schools are required to follow safety guidelines. Parents can rest assured about their children’s safety as FICCI WHO guidelines are fairly thorough and even demand that schools designate isolation rooms for suspected corona cases.

In the post-pandemic school model, children spend two to three days at school followed by home-schooling. On the days when the children are home — they can access online lessons and complete project work. Therefore, learning is split between physical and digital classrooms. There are several advantages of being in “half-filled classrooms” — students can get individual attention and focus on studying with fewer notes passed below desks. At home, children would have ample time and resources to review what they learned in class and dig deeper into subjects they like through projects, group-work and self-study.

As the initial euphoria of being back to school wears off, parents and teachers must be on the lookout for teenagers who prefer to recede into oneself when faced with unpleasant situations. The home-bound isolation can adversely impact the social skills of some children, especially introverts — who may be more vulnerable than others as the school fabric transitions through change.

Conversely, the socially active children may struggle with the classroom mantra “Share Thoughts, not Things”. Tiffin-time will be hard with no lunch sharing or sit-down meals in canteens. Children, with infinite curiosity and desire for adventure will challenge the rules — so teachers would be hard-pressed to instill message of social distancing and safe hygiene. It can be helpful to make study teams, playing hygiene-games, finding ways to engage the idle curiosity in children and enabling communication with friends will help. Some simple ways to engage could include leaving messages on boards for friends or bonus points for keeping the classroom tidy.

During the lockdown, teachers have been virtual Hero (literally and figuratively) for many a child. The teachers have carried the burden of blended lesson plans, class management and soothing anxious parents. In the near future, as the students trickle back into classrooms - the teachers will have many challenges to face — bridging learning gaps in children who could not follow online classes, beating exhausting emotional labour from teaching twice as many student groups in a week and managing remedial classes. Fortunately, some schools are roping in assistant or junior teachers to help with digital learning.

The majority of private schools in urban areas are now equipped with Digital Learning systems or Learning Management Systems. Fortunately, the teachers have a variety of digital tools and data available — the new class analytics can be a big boon for lesson planning and creating individual reports. What will be difficult is collating progress reports from both online and offline modules. It may be helpful to use some tricks from corporate learning — creating with one-page summary profiles for individual students and charting competency-based progress on a regular basis.

Overall, the school system is in for a multitude of challenges and all the stakeholders have a diverse set of issues to address and resolve. All stakeholders in the education ecosystem agree that our children matter and their schooling is a critical part of our society. Time to anticipate changes, create solutions and ensure that our children are safe in schools from the Corona Virus.