It’s back to school again. With school uniforms now tight, new shoes bought on Puja eve, backpacks hanging off young shoulders, and waving to friends after a gap of 20 months, children in West Bengal (and elsewhere) will be seen getting rid of their laptops, at least for a few hours, and exchanging hellos with their peers.

The excitement of a return to school may be tempered by the need to wear masks and maintain safe distances. But who cares, if they are able to mingle outside school gates before and after school hours. In fact, their life-determining journey restarts on the path followed for generations, but with a difference. As schools were closed for more than a year, parents and families had to face an abnormal situation.

They had begun to realise that schools have immense potential for both formal and informal education; schools are the place where one gets to learn and progress, fulfill one’s dreams and learn to live in a community. Teachers had begun to partner with parents in unforeseen ways. Media companies had started working with educational leaders for supporting children in novel ways. In Indian situations, however, no consensus could be reached on whether to educate students remotely or bring them back to classrooms or create a hybrid model that would blend both.

In the US, many schools have decided to do it remotely. Kenya announced school closure till the end of 2021 while the Philippines vowed to keep their schools closed until a vaccine is made available for kids. On the other hand, many schools in the Netherlands and other parts of Europe have planned to resume the teaching-learning process offline. Remote learning has always been challenging for elementary school students who need guidelines and social interaction as well.

Also, they are less able to focus on remote classes for long periods. In fact, contrary to our decision to start classes for senior students first, many countries such as Denmark, Germany and Norway, have adopted the approach of opening elementary schools first. We have seen that in countries or states where both high schools and elementary schools were opened, infection rates soared, and schools had to be closed again. That Covid-19 has shown us the importance of public schools is not refutable.

They have been at the centre of a community ecosystem of learning. It is time we harnessed innovation to leapfrog education towards an equitable and relevant learning ecosystem for our younger ones. Educational inequality has accelerated in an unprecedented manner. It is learnt that as Covid left nearly 1.5 million pupils in the world out of school as early as 2020, the education system could not deliver quality education. Pre-pandemic analysis suggested that nearly 90 per cent of children in low-income countries would not be able to attain basic secondary skills imparted through education.

The World Bank’s 2018 World Development Report dubbed the situation as a “learning crisis “and more funding was sought to support learning systems across the globe. During the pandemic, while the rich ~ people and countries ~ found gadgets to support their children’s education, parents of lowincome countries found it difficult to provide any type of remote learning opportunities. Unicef estimates that 463 million children ~ at least one third of the world’s total, a majority belonging to developing countries ~ had no opportunity to avail remote learning via radio, television, or online content.

The crisis has revealed the potential for innovation that hitherto was dormant in many education systems. Amidst difficulties now there is a chance to identify new opportunities which may help young pupils get education that would prepare them for the changing times. With data-based technology, educators would be able to create flexible learning spaces and continuous online learning environments which might spread across hours, schools and communities. Parents would be better connected to and involved with their children’s education with certainty and confidence.

Students would be empowered to learn for themselves in collaborative ways, both inside and outside their classrooms at their own pace. New learning tools would be able to adjust to the needs of individual students. Personalised learning and real time data could see the end of the existing cycle of lessons and tests. Splitting classes into two groups and providing simultaneous live instruction to both at the same time would be the most acceptable hybrid learning method. Denmark divided elementary school classes into two halves ~ one remote and one in the classroom.

Teachers provided Mathematics and language instructions to the live cohort while the remote cohort dialed in. Traditional homework methods might also be experienced in which teachers could provide instructions at school and students would practise at home. In a “flipped classroom” model, students learn new ideas by watching pre-recorded videos and then coming together as a class to complete exercises and assignments, with teachers acting as coaches. In an asynchronous hybrid model, students can experience a mix of learning activities at school and at home.

When they meet in person, teachers can assess their understanding of the remote content and then provide further instructions. When they are remote, they work independently through asynchronous content. For those school systems that lack digital infrastructure, resources and local expertise to roll out blended learning, the ideal learning model in the present scenario may combine the use of mass media, simple phone messaging apps and paper handouts.

Gambia used donor funding to distribute solar powered radios across communities that lack electricity and broadband access. Hybrid learning may create a need for new teaching models. School systems may hire new virtual learning teams to provide blended learning. For remote instruction, learning navigators may be required to help students, teachers and families use technology effectively. As students are back to school for hybrid learning, parents’ involvement with their wards during online classes may be encouraged, to supplement the support that they already have given.

Schools might commit to regularly connecting one-on-one with families to understand the curriculum and address specific challenges. The idea of children’s education being supported by an ecosystem of learning opportunities is not new. The community schools envisioned the school as the hub of a child’s education and development. Recently, the concept of local learning ecosystems has emerged to define learning opportunities provided through collaboration between schools, community organisations and government agencies for good results.

There is evidence that young people engaging in diverse learning opportunities outside school ~ from extracurricular activities to formal educational programming ~ can be quite helpful in enhancing the skills and academic performance of marginalised children. Covid-19 has provided an opportunity to harness new energy between school communities to work for supporting children’s learning.

It is time we realised that given their essential role in equalising opportunities across society, public schools should be put at the centre of the education system.

(The writer, a former Associate Professor, department of English, Gurudas College, Kolkata, is presently with Rabindra Bharati University)