Although Covid has unfathomable impact over people all over the world, the most affected are children. Ever since public education through institutions such as ‘schools’ and ‘colleges’ became popular, there has been an immense responsibility on these institutions to not only facilitate learning, but also impart socially desirable behaviour and skills. Families are largely idiosyncratic spaces, trying to groom the children within the limited confines of ‘righteous behaviour’ in the light of not only their socio-economic and cultural background, but also personal caprices.
Perspectives flourish when children are exposed to the wider society, and schools as ‘social spaces’ are well-versed in bridging the vacuum created by families in terms of what is appropriate and rightful not only for self, but for others, too. Schools assist and harmonise the behaviour of children with divergent personalities and backgrounds. A child reluctantly steps out of home for the first time to attend school, lest the strange space outside be not as secure as home. The same child, after years of schooling, considers the peer group as more valuable than family in sharing psycho-social issues. This is an unintended consequence of schooling, which is compromised with the pandemic distancing the inter-relations among children.
The classroom is only a part of a social space, though a critical one, where both learning and socialisation happen simultaneously. Apart from this, from the time a child leaves home for school, the transit space, the time spent before the classes begin, during intervals and play and the whole-school interactions, etc., provide a significant opportunity for learners to actively engage with others in a productive way, which is not often acknowledged. The richness of interaction is accentuated by the diversity of the pupils’ backgrounds in the schools as they represent a microcosm of society and provide scope for comprehending a broad spectrum of social realities.
These important social spaces invigorate children to develop wide-ranging social skills that enable them to survive, co-exist and further overcome new and unforeseen challenges. These are more important for the children of the present generation, wherein mobility, both physical and virtual, is the watchword for a better future. They are hindered in these pandemic times with children glued to homes, and online classes, due to inevitable circumstances. The voices of children are muted in online classes, with interaction among children being meagre or absent. The sole motive is to only transact academic aspects, or rather deliver the content. Meaningful interaction involves alternative ways of transaction rather than simply delivering the offline content in online mode.
Being at home all the time without attending school places a huge burden on the child as a least empowered entity at home. It is not only the child but all others, too, are at home for most of the time, and for many, the house is not a cozy place to accommodate all of them during the day, without causing inconvenience to each other. For instance, when an online class is being conducted, other siblings and parents find it difficult to cope with the noise or to conduct their own chores. For a child, too, the social space has to be shared with those who do not have common stakes during learning, and that not only distracts oneself but also others.
The nuclear families and infrequent interaction with the outside world during these pandemic times allow parents either to pamper the children or snub them or do both, too often in enclosed spaces, since everyone is out of routine and has enough time to engage with each other. Either way, children don’t receive their due, which is available in the outside space, where their actions are viewed much more dispassionately. While parental observations are largely judgemental, peers often brush aside many of the behavioural aspects as frivolous and contribute to the development of a broader perspective. This is not to rule out the emotional support provided by families at home, but to highlight the absence of scope for interacting with larger groups. Added to this are skirmishes among family members, which directly or indirectly influence the children. There are other dimensions, like competitiveness, cooperativeness, observation and spontaneous and subsequent responses, which are all possible when children gather physically at one place and interact with each other. Although competition is viewed as an extraneous motivation, it plays a vital role in achieving excellence. The potential to outperform others, and the gratification that one gets through the reactions of the teacher and other children are valuable in making progress.
Equally important is the spirit of cooperativeness, which is apparent through performing group tasks, supporting and helping each other, sometimes even unsolicited. Children learn through observation and even a complex language structure that is often alien to family members is quickly learnt by children by observing and associating with other children. The virtual mode of interaction hardly provides a substitute to live interaction.
The pandemic has forced children and our systems to venture into a new framework of relationships that no way matches the traditional one. The nature and unpredictability of the virus, with its mutations threatening any guaranteed timeframe for reopening of schools for the normal course of events, it is inevitable for us to find ways through which we can engage children.
Parental awareness and appreciation of providing ‘space’ to children to unwind themselves in productive ways needs to be explored. Workshops could be held for parents and older siblings to orient them towards a changed learning environment. Communities need to play a vibrant role in engaging children physically and mentally, observing safety measures. This will enable an extended support to nuclear families and relieve stress not only of children but also of families.
Online classes could also be conducted for small groups of students who assemble at different homes on rotation. Children could be asked to conduct discussions among themselves before reaching out to the teacher for an online class, wherein rather than delivering the content, interaction is encouraged and doubts clarified.
Finally, staggered conduct of classes for students could be started, so that schools are not cluttered at any point of time. There can be many other ways through which we can mitigate the lack of live interaction, and for that we need to think out of the box.
(The writer is Professor & Principal, Regional Institute of Education, NCERT)