Letter to BS: Schools, colleges should be reopened with maximum caution

While educational institutions have readily embraced online learning, it cannot be presumed to have benefited students from every strata of the society

Following the easing of lockdown restrictions, life is now slowly limping back to the new normal, but there is no end to the uncertainty surrounding the opening of schools and higher educational institutions in the country. While educational institutions have readily embraced online learning, it cannot be presumed to have benefited students from every strata of the society. As a country with a yawning digital divide and no social security architecture, the level of success of online learning is dependent on the ease of digital access and the ability of parents to support e-learning at home. Earlier, the enabling classroom environment helped the enterprising students to achieve academic success despite poverty and little help from their unlettered parents, but now the poor are left out of the ambit of online learning. Also, even as several concepts can be digitally transmitted, the matrix for socialisation cannot be replicated on the screen. Schools and colleges can be reopened with maximum caution as life must go on despite the virus.

M Jeyaram Sholavandan

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