Phased return to the learning culture of school

COVID-19 created a situation in which we realised that education can only be partly digitised. The result was that private schools maintained appearances and some semblance of learning, which was essential for their sustenance. Meanwhile, from the largest studyi done on government school students, we learnt that 80-90 percent lost at least one ability that they had gained in the previous year in both maths and language. The loss of specific abilities in these subjects ranged from 20-90 percent of students. While it is difficult to convert this exactly to the months of learning lost, it is fairly clear that it is more than the months that the schools remained closed, which, at the time of writing this, was 18 months! For perspective, a study in the United States showed students to be 4-5 months behind due to COVID-19-related closure (school closure in the US were much shorter than in India)