KARACHI:
According to UNESCO, education and human interaction between the teacher and the student are two sides of the same coin. This is because learners can only reap the benefits of meaningful education only if it is transmitted through a physical class setting which prioritises critical thinking, questioning, discussion and feedback. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, education, particularly formal learning, faced a major setback as educational institutes started closing down. Students were seen treading on perilous waters, dwindling from online to physical to a hybrid model of learning that exacerbated the already prevalent uncertainties about their academic future.
The situation still remains bleak. The increasing fear of children dropping out at the backdrop of continued economic disruptions in Pakistan foreshadow a dire educational crisis as 22 million students are already out of the ambit of free and compulsory education. The only viable solution to curb educational disruptions is to incorporate mass vaccination in our national agenda. Although vaccinating 220 million people, leaving out the younger population, is an arduous task in itself as the vaccine acceptance rate among Pakistani population remains far from satisfactory, vaccinating teachers and school staff along with health care workers should be given utmost priority. In this respect, the government needs to start a large-scale campaign to convince people about the necessity of getting vaccinated by making it tantamount to our national duty. Also, there is a need to make vaccination mandatory for organisations, schools and workspaces because working from home, although a viable alternative and an emerging norm, is not a long-term solution.
In the meantime, it is time for the government to gear up online learning efforts in order to make sure that the students stay connected with their studies as long as the need for it continues. Once this period is over, large-scale campaigning should be incorporated by volunteers through seminars and workshops to get them back to school in a streamlined manner.
Hadia Mukhtar
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, April 20th, 2021.
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