Literacy, numeracy take a back seat for impoverished students in Chennai as schools remain closed

CHENNAI: After Jamila's phone broke down last month her children have had limited or no access to education. Students from poor households are struggling to keep pace with lessons and have almost forgotten the arithmetic tables and spellings of certain words.

Like Jamila's children, many economically disadvantaged students have only blurred memories of the foundational education they received - one of the most dangerous consequences of the Covid-19 lock down.

While some are able to use lessons broadcast on television and via the internet, students who don’t have access to the platforms are losing out on the prime years of their learning.

Stakeholders say that the government needs to come up with a specialised programme to compensate for the loss in literacy and numeracy.

PK Ilamaran, the leader of the Tamil Nadu Government Teachers' Association, said, "When it comes to literacy training, students first learn words, then speak, read and finally write them." He added that
without practising the "foundational LSR (Learning, Speaking, Reading) strategy", students have not been able to pick up writing. 

Poor access to stable technology:

Velmurugan*, who works as a forest guard near Pollachi, has a seven-year-old son. "I have no television. We are allowed to have only solar electricity in our house and can use it only for lights and
fans, and TVs do not work in this set up," he said.

Jamila, herself  a Class 5 dropout, states, "When my phone was working their teachers regularly sent video lessons and when my children had doubts, the teacher clarified them."

"I try to get them to follow lessons on Kalvi TV. But the electricity connection is unstable and it is very difficult to make them sit down for class, as there are continual power outages," she adds.  

While the only smartphone in Jamila's house broke down, there are many children whose family has never even owned a smart device, says a Class 2 teacher from Thiruvallur.

"A large number of elementary school children cannot benefit from lessons broadcast on Kalvi TV, as they are not supplemented by other kinds of education," he said adding many parents are daily wage
workers and do not have the time or the wherewithal to teach their children.

Parental Support:

"They either have to take their children to the field or leave them under relatives' care. In either case, the children do not end up learning since there is nobody there to make them do it," he opines.
He said that many of his students, particularly female ones, who are as young as 10-years-old have been doing the household chores while their parents go out for work.

Another important aspect in literacy and numeracy training is the education levels of the parents. Raymond, a driver, has studied until Class 10. He knows well to read, write and do basic arithmetic. "Me or my wife make sure that our children study at a specific time each day. It took a while for us to set up our TV and buy a DTH to watch KalviTV lessons. But since we watch the lessons with them, we give them practice after," he said. Other poor parents who are not educated cannot offer this support.

Short-term fixes

Maragatham*, is the mother of 10- and 12-year-olds who attend a government school. "I sometimes help them study. I send my children to an English medium school but KalviTV lessons are broadcast only in Tamil," she says adding that her children are struggling to understand scientific and mathematics terminologies in Tamil. Citing an example, she says when her children only know words like addition and not the Tamil equivalent "Koottal." "It will be very helpful if the lessons are also taught in English," she said.

R Rukmangadan, the state treasurer of Thamizhaga Arambapalli Asiriyar Sangam - an association of government elementary school teachers, said that the government should ideally print a lesson schedule of KalviTV lessons and facilitate access for students to watch it. 

"Parents do not know how to go online and download a schedule. In seven months, they should have printed a schedule and given it to students, so that they know when to make their children watch. It is very difficult for them to watch TV the whole day while working to find out when class is," he said. 

Schools, when they reopen, must immediately focus on foundational skills which include basic reading and arithmetic, in order to compensate for the learning loss, says Rukmini Banerji, the chief
executive officer of Pratham Educational Foundation, a non-profit organisation that helps conduct the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER).

In a report about ‘Graded Learning Programme’ (GLP), a collaborative effort between Pratham and the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Department, she said that schools, in order to give literacy and numeracy training to students, should classify students based on their skill level instead of age, as done conventionally. 

​A similar programme can thus undo the loss caused by the lockdown, the report estimates.

A senior official from the School Education Department said that they are contemplating having a special training to brush up the basics for a week or ten days when schools reopen before classes resume. However, the official added that any such decision will be taken only after the state takes a decision on reopening.

* (names changed)