According to a UNICEF survey, 76 percent of parents of children aged 5-13 years and 80 percent of adolescents between the ages of 14-18 reported learning less because of the closure of schools. In addition, 10 per cent of the students surveyed did not have access to a smartphone in their homes or outside.
The survey on learning status during the pandemic was conducted in six states – Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh – in 2020. It was also found that about 45 per cent of children who did not make use of distance learning opportunities were completely unaware of any resource from which they could learn.
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On World Children’s Day, the Parliamentarians’ Group for Children (PGC) in association with UNICEF India hosted a ‘Children’s Parliament’, in which students presented a nine-point ‘Charter of Demands’ to MPs and sought to learn from them. Urged to take action to support recovery. , “With schools safely reopening across the country after more than a year, children’s demand for charter safe school reopenings as well as equitable access to online learning, reducing curriculum size and Focuses on prioritizing vaccination for children,” UNICEF said in an official notice.
The students demanded equal access to online learning for all by providing digital devices and a good internet connection. He also called for free COVID-19 vaccination of children “so that we can interact, play and learn freely.” He also demanded reopening of schools with COVID-19 safety measures like vaccination, thermal screening, availability of masks in school, regular sanitisation. , and physical distance.
He also asked the government to waive school fees for people from low-income backgrounds as well as ensure streaming classes on television for children who do not have access to online education. Children also sought to reduce the size of the curriculum as children “may face difficulty in understanding concepts through distance learning, and this is too time-consuming”.
“Involving students in decision making at the school level. We demand that schools be treated as equal stakeholders in the decision-making process, and that school authorities should create space to express our opinions and challenges,” the students said.
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In addition, he demanded mid-day meals, creating awareness among school staff on COVID appropriate behaviour, training teachers on creative ways of online learning and supporting mental health issues of students as well as education in COVID times. Bringing about a change in policy.
Yasumasa Kimura, UNICEF India The representative said “The global pandemic has affected children in many ways – with nutrition, immunization, mental and physical health and child safety, as well as education being an important area. As we look forward to recovering from the nearly two-year pandemic which has taken away school education from countless children, it becomes necessary to proceed with the plan of restoration of education.”
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