Education in India faces challenges

Find out how the Shanti Public School has got on so far this year

The first half of 2021 has been a lot easier for our schools than last year. Thanks to comprehensive COVID-19 prevention measures, such as regular hand washing, social distancing, and classroom disinfection, our schools have been able to open for the third semester of the academic year. This has been a huge achievement, considering the situation which the world found itself in this time last year, with neither hope nor prospect of opening educational establishments/school in September 2020. Thanks to the tireless efforts on the part of the schools' staff and directors, they have managed to get children back into the classroom, keep COVID-19 at bay and ensure that the children keep on top of the curriculum set out for them this academic year.

 

In 2021, the CFF children were able to be back in the classroom, though, of course, on the basis that they washed their hands regularly during the day, teachers disinfected hands, desks and chairs between lessons and the children ate at home before or after coming to school. Whilst moving around in the school building, masks were required and physical contact had to be avoided.

INdia
India

To make matters even more difficult, India has struggled with a range of issues surrounding the pandemic. Many families have to make do with cramped living conditions, with many generations living together under one roof. Washing and waste disposal facilities are often insanitary, meaning houses have no access to hot and cold running water, outdoor loos with no hand washing facilities and inadequate infrastructure to cope with population inflation and the impacts of Corona and modern living. A fragile health and social welfare system is still bursting at the seams and even attempting to gain control over the spread of Corona virus has proved a huge challenge. Our schools have experienced the brunt of all these issues and more. Despite all of this, the children have excelled this term, kept up with the curriculum and enjoyed seeing their friends again, even if at a safe distance.

 

We hope that the new school term will see children sitting in their classrooms at school without masks and able to continue playing with their friends in the playground and eating hot meals at school/getting to the bus to school with their friends. However, in order to make this happen, we need just a little bit of help with a few things to get the semester off to the right start:

 

- Textbooks

- Uniforms

- School busses/Transport to school

 

With just these small things, we can make the back to school season for our children run smoothly, meaning little heads are more likely to be sitting in classrooms with the right equipment needed.