Closing schools would ‘spell disaster for children’, says Right to Education group

The National Coalition on the Education Emergency, a conglomeration of networks that work on the Right to Education, has opposed the closing of schools, saying it would “spell a disaster for children”.

“Complete lockdown has severely affected our economy and jobs earlier,” the group said in a statement. “School lockdown will similarly seriously harm our children, and that too, over the long term.”

The group said that schools need to be kept open “to reduce this serious harm” and resume learning. “Schools must be the last to close and the first to open,” it added.

The statement is endorsed by 18 eminent citizens, including All India Primary Teachers Federation President Rampal Singh, IT for Change Director Gurumurthy Kasinath and Child Rights Specialist Alka Singh, among others.

Schools were closed in March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic triggered an abrupt countrywide lockdown. Some states had resumed in-person classes after the second wave of the pandemic abated in August 2021, but many are now deciding to again to shut educational institutes amid the spread of the Omicron variant.

Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab, West Bengal, Goa and Haryana are among those that have ordered schools to be shut. While all these states besides Delhi passed the order in view of the rising Omicron cases, the schools…

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