Rinda AngomEvery kid waits for a holiday or vacation and to be honest when the lockdown was imposed due to the pandemic, most of them were happy. I saw random videos of little kids expressing their happiness on the closing of their schools, little did they know that it was going to be for a long long time. And when they realised it, they felt stuck, bored, lonely, feeling imprisoned, frustrated because of distancing from friends and relatives. And later when online classes started, the frustration is fuelled up trying to cope with the online system of studying. Most kids were stressed and had impact on their mental health due to the Covid pandemic. Now that schools are reopening and we hope normalcy returns for studying and education.
For back to school, Rabitat conducted a survey done through some questionnaires asked to parents. The majority of the parents have kids who are 2-4 yrs followed by parents who have 4-6 years old kids.
58.7% of parents have enrolled their kids for online classes managed by their existing schools. It is concerning as to what happened to the rest of the kids who haven’t opted for online classes since schools aren’t opened for the kids to physically present. They could have either dropped out or waiting for school to reopen.
When checked on the kids who have enrolled for online classes asking parents how satisfied they are, 34.9% are not satisfied with online and 49.2% are moderately happy. This means even online classes have not been able to deliver at par with how it’s done offline. The reason being the reduced effectiveness of teaching and not being able to interact the way it’s done physically. In low-income families with more children and able to afford one appliance for online class, only one child can take the class and others usually missed out. The children also faced technical issues and had to cancel their classes as well. Also, the students are missing out on practicals and field trips that require physical presence.
31.7% of the parents have opted for online schooling while the majority of them are unsure of it. In spite of the lack of teaching effectiveness, some parents still opted for online classes. It is most likely they prefer to keep education active for their kids than doing nothing.
The parents who are unsure of could be the ones who cannot afford the provisions required for online education. Therefore, it is very important for the schools to reopen to fill the void of teaching ineffectiveness and provide education to the children who can’t afford online classes.
In another survey conducted by Rabitat, it was clear that the majority of parents aren’t ready to send their children without the vaccination to the school. So even if the schools are reopened, it’s unsure whether they will send their children or not. Hence, Covid vaccination is the need of the hour for the schools to resume successfully. We are hoping for the kids’ vaccination to roll out as soon as possible.