The need of the hour is a holistic approach for the wellbeing of the future generation

 

There is no disaster that cannot become a blessing 

and no blessing that cannot become a disaster -  Richard Bach.

 

The pandemic, a catastrophe we never expected to experience during our lifetimes, continues to challenge us in new ways.

 

Even during normal times, our societies have been living embodiments of the haves and the have-nots, but the pandemic has widened that divide.  The pandemic has not respected a nation’s geographical boundaries, or its economic prowess, or people’s educational and professional attainments, or their religion and social status, or whether they are young or old and male or female. 

 

The widening chasm between the haves and the have-nots has, ironically enough, impacted all segments of our societies across the world with the children arguably being impacted the most. 

 

Children learn by observing.  When they observe, they understand and internalise what they have and own, and what others have and own. Schools, no doubt, do their utmost to instil a sense of equality among students – they prescribe school uniforms; they attempt to treat all students the same in all school matters. They try to shield children from internalising differences due to their socioeconomic status, and to minimize comparisons such as “I have this pencil and she does not”, or “his parents have a car and we probably never will”. The pandemic has upended people’s livelihoods, and has in turn, significantly impacted children. The chasm between children who “have” and children who don’t has become more pronounced and visible for all to see. 

 

We now have children who go to school because their schools continue to function, and children who cannot because their schools never opened. We now have children who can learn online because their schools offer online instruction, and children whose learning and development has completely stopped because their schools don’t offer online instruction.  Even among children whose schools offer online instruction, some cannot afford the technology, or access to the internet; many do not have the environment or space in their homes with the privacy and quietness they need to learn. 

 

Sadly, we now have children who have plenty to eat, and children who have little to eat because they depended on their now closed schools to give them a meal.

 

What to say of uniforms!  Because uniforms have disappeared during online instruction, children now see that their classmates are different from them. Some classmates sport the best dresses, use the latest gadgets, and attend classes from “their own room.”  Children now see that they have and I don’t have. Do not think this is the plight only of the poor. Even children in middle class families with a  two bedroom home suddenly feel a lack of space even as their parents jostle for the same private and quiet space. 

 

The academically weaker students can no longer go to the teacher for extra in person help. They can no longer consult the tuition master for a one-on-one intervention in person. 

 

Schools now reflect in their infrastructure, or the lack thereof, the divide between ‘the haves and the have-nots.’ Some well-endowed schools have the resources and technical capabilities to begin online education in a planned manner, to send students their lessons online, and to monitor and tutor children effectively. And then there are schools, established and renowned ones among them, which cannot afford the best of the technologies – they manage their classes online with what’s freely available - free 

Zoom or free Google Meet. They have no technical capabilities or resources to guide them in implementing these technologies – they have never had these capabilities.

 

If anything,  being the optimist that I am, the pandemic has been a blessing in disguise. The pandemic has taught us how to navigate the world of online digital teaching, instruction, and learning – we have learned much about what a digital future can look like for education. But, we have also learned that we have much work to do – although this blog post has been about my experiences with children in city schools, think of children in remote villages and towns with limited or no access to internet – how do we get them to excel in their learning? 

 

I propose a collective effort to reach out to the schools and to the children in these schools so we cannot only initiate conversations about our readiness for the digital future in education, but also to generate action plans to ensure that, at least in education, all our children are only ‘haves’.

 

What we sorely need is a holistic approach for the economic, physical, mental and intellectual wellness of our children, irrespective of their socioeconomic status or their age or gender. 

 

This ‘power cut’ cannot make their lives go dark forever. 

These little hearts cannot go weak but need to emerge stronger than ever before.

 

In future posts in this series, we will share ideas and strategies each of us can use to turn what we ‘have’ into a superpower for children who feel like they are a part of the have-nots. We owe this to them.

 

Stay tuned.

Ranganathan Sundaram