COVID’s impact on children’s learning: How can parents and students cope

"I have graduated to Primary School! But, I made no friends in Senior Kg!"

"My entire final year of Schooling, which I was looking forward to eagerly, has all gone virtual!"

These are some expressions of feelings of children due to the pandemic which struck the globe in 2019, swept the year 2020 away, and threatens to do the same in 2021.

What is learning for children?

Gaining content knowledge through the academic curriculum is one aspect of learning for school children. In the fifteen years of school education, students also learn social and life skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, innovation, empathy, compassion, kindness, and much more. All these are better-shaped in a physical environment at school where children interact with their peers and learn from them.

How has the pandemic resurgence impacted children’s learning?

Imparting academic content has continued in schools, thanks to technology and the many different learning management systems, which have immensely supported students during the past year. After a long period of online schooling, children were looking forward to going back to school and enjoying learning and fun with their peers.

However, the second wave and the anticipated third waves of the pandemic have thrown their dreams off-kilter. Apart from changing the medium of learning from Physical to Online, the pandemic has made us more stressed as a society irrespective of age. Everyone feels a sense of worry and insecurity for their loved ones and the long-term effects of this insecurity are yet to be understood.

How can the situation be tackled and learning reinstated?

The role of adults is of paramount importance in enabling children to regain their confidence, managing their stress, and Ensuring their learning journey continues during the virtual-learning phase.

• Parents are encouraged to keep children engaged through activities like games and reading, having healthy discussions on topics of interest to their children, teaching them life skills of cooking, stitching, cleaning, etc, and engaging them in creative activities like art, music, and dance. They can be put to a regular family exercise regime, virtually get together with family and friends, virtual birthday and special day celebration and regular interaction with the family members who live in other parts of the world.
• For those living in a joint family, bonding with other family members and time spent in play, storytelling and helping family members with simple household tasks, act as great breaks or break-time for children.. in the course of their day.
• Teachers can keep the interest and enthusiasm of students alive with their motivational talks during the academic sessions, conduct competitions of interest for them, engage them in group activities using technology (using breakout rooms and the like), and express appreciation of the students' activities and performance liberally.
• Educational boards can revisit their assessment patterns and parameters and include life skills and the skills of managing such situations as one of the important parameters of learning. Children have gracefully tackled this mysterious pandemic situation by staying indoors, without much physical activity, friends, and the happiness which comes along with physical schooling. These can become important subjects in the future and a strong age-appropriate curriculum that is practical in approach can be created and rolled out as soon as possible.
•  Just as physical hygiene is important, emotional hygiene and emotional first aid are critical at the right time. Schools can host regular meditation sessions for children & combined sessions that may be attended by parents and children on weekends. There is an opportunity for comprehensive counselling support with the help of professional counsellors. Each school can set up a school helpline and email ID, this will would enhance the ability of students to reach out for emotional health support in a safe space, and the authenticity of the school facilitating it.
• The emotional well-being of parents, students & school staff (teachers & administrative staff) who are experiencing bereavement of their near and dear ones, anxiety, and panic attacks, and other emotional trauma is equally important with the extension of one to one counselling support to them over the phone or zoom or team meets.
• Many parents & students feel the loss of community. They miss catching up with fellow parents from the same class, due to the lack of physical connection & regular meetings that would happen during regular school days. To bridge this gap, schools can have unplugged conversations or parent chats and group zoom calls with parents and children. Just simple catch-up format calls where everyone chats about what’s happening in each other’s worlds and, how they are overcoming challenges.

A strong call out for the moment is to help everyone in our ambit to “live in inspiration rather in memory”!

All these support activities of the various stakeholders who play a major role in shaping the lives of children will help them in all aspects of their learning – academics, co-curricular activities, life skills, values, ethics, and most importantly a deep understanding of how to handle unprecedented situations.

Article by Rahul Deshpande, CEO, EuroSchool India

Disclaimer- The views expressed in this article are of the author, and are not affiliated with DNA.