BELAGAVI: A silent campaign initiated by education activists, experts, doctors and members of school development and monitoring committees (SDMCs) was instrumental in changing wary parents and government’s opinions about on-campus learning during the pandemic. The efforts were focused mainly on addressing fears over restarting schools and Vidyagama sessions.
In October last year, concerns about coronavirus infections among teachers and students forced the government to halt the Vidyagama programme. The concerns, activists argued, were not based on hard data as the actual number of Covid-19 cases among students and teachers was lower than what many had thought. Citing experts, TOI reported how the fears were unfounded.
Education expert VP Niranjanaradhya said that a lot of effort went into battling wrong perceptions and allaying the concerns of parents and other stakeholders. “We showed international research papers, which spoke about the lower risk among children and how discontinuation of schools will affect the wellbeing of children,” he said.
Niranjanaradhya and others circulated fact-based information on social media. “We activated SDMCs to hold webinars and discussions on the subject, so the right information could reach parents and students,” he added.
Dr Srinivas Kakkilaya, who collated data from the Covid-19 war room in Bengaluru, said that there was robust data on infection rates among children of various groups. The rates were not high. “This data was shared with officials and parents to ease concerns,” Kakkilaya said. With the help of All India Students Federation and SDMCs, several WhatsApp groups were created to provide accurate information. Parents were part of these groups. This helped build consensus about reopening schools.
Syed Hafizullah of the Bharatiya Gjana Vignana Samithi said the organisation highlighted the plight of rural children in North Karnataka — how suspension of on-campus classes and Vidyagama had led to instances of child labour and marriage. Niranjanaradhya said that later, students joined the calls for oncampus learning. A group of students started a campaign called ‘Namma Nade Shaleya Kade (Our walk will be towards school)’, creating 1,000 clips. SDMCs put more pressure on the government by defying curbs and reopening many schools on December 16.