In June, when three-and-a-half-year-old Nitara began online classes, it was a shock for her parents. There were new classmates, a new teacher, and everything had changed. Her mother Shriya Rajagopalan said: “She was very shy and quiet for the first one month. She pleaded with me that she didn’t know these people and that she wanted to go back to her old class and friends.”
Illustration: Saai; Shriya with her daughter Nitara; Lakshminarayanan
Chennai:
Despite the city opening up at the start of this month, schools in the city remain closed. Now, entering nearly three months of online classes, parents, teachers and experts worry about the impact online classes will have on children’s development and health.
Experts and studies agree that schooling offers key socialisation for children and aids their development, especially during the formative years, which is until 10 years of age. This is not happening with online classes, leaving parents concerned.
“It worries me that she is missing out on so much. We will have to forget this part of their childhood because they are stuck at home. Most of her fun and laughter comes through the iPad, and we don’t want her to think that these interactions are only virtual,” said Rajagopalan.
Experts feel that the lockdown will have short- and middle-term impacts on neurotypical children, such as digital addiction, loss of concentration, poor memory skills etc. However, these three months will impact neurodivergent children in a much larger way.
“For children with learning disorders or those with special needs, these are three months that have been lost, that will affect them in the long-term. They need to be sensitised early, and the lack of intervention can be harmful to their development. Additionally, in teens, we can see a rise in digital addiction and decrease in efficiency due to the lockdown, which can affect them in the long-term,” said Dr Lakshminarayanan, Senior Consultant - Paediatric Neurologist and Epileptologist, Rainbow Children’s Hospital.
Teachers, on the other hand, feel that online communication is not as effective as in person. They admit that the last few months of online classes will require an additional month of daily physical classes to reinforce the topics covered, as well as to assess the children’s understanding of the same.
“Primary school teachers are worried because there is an aspect of socialisation in school that children are missing out on. As we deal with children from less-privileged background, accessibility remains a concern in online learning. Moreover, some students have shifted to their native villages and we do not know what they have undergone this lockdown period. Some parents might have even sent them to work after finding it difficult to make both ends meet. We do not know if they have been receiving nutritious meals due to financial constraints experienced by many families. We will be able to assess the students, educationally, physically and emotionally only when we get to meet them, which is why we are keen on regular classes,” said Jalaja, headmistress of RKM School.
The impact of the lockdown is still in the short-term but can have long-term impact as the schools remain closed, cautions Dr Lakshminarayanan.
“At least my daughter has been to a physical playschool, so she knows what a classroom is supposed to look like. There are some in her class who have never been there and think that this is the norm,” said Rajagopalan.