AHMEDABAD: Nutan Patel, the owner of two pre-schools in Vastral, says they had 600-odd students before the pandemic. This number has been reduced to 100 at present.
“We run online classes but parents are not willing to supervise. Also, these children are unable to even hold pencils on their own and need the constant physical presence of teachers,” she says.
While pandemic has resulted in the closure of the majority of preschools in the city, there are a few that have managed to remain afloat by switching to online classes. The shift, however, comes with its own set of challenges, given the tender age of the children involved and the financial crisis many parents are facing due to the pandemic.
Swati Popat Vats, president of Early Childhood Association and Association for Primary Education and Research, says the Covid-19 pandemic has taken a toll on pre-school education, with the majority of such facilities closing down in the past one and a half years.
“About 85% of a child’s brain develops at this time and it’s a no-brainer to gauge the impact of the closure of pre-schools can have on these children,” she says.
That a 30-year-old playschool in Satellite recently shut down as it could not find enough takers amid the pandemic is testimony of the challenges these institutions face.
“It’s next to impossible to run online classes for pre-school children. There is a huge risk to the health of the kids by calling them to school. The lives of these children are more important than their education at this stage,” said the owner of a school, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
As far as online learning goes, it is not very effective for children of these age who require a personal touch and in-person human communication, he adds.
There are people like Firdosh Lalkaka, who runs one of the oldest pre-schools in the city located in Navrangpura along with few others who have managed to keep their schools running by switching to online classes.
A manager of a playgroup in Bopal says there were at least eight playgroups in Bopal of which only a couple of them are functioning today. One of the main reasons for their closure is that with parents at home due to pandemic, they did not prefer to send their children to playgroups.
These playgroups were incurring a monthly loss of over Rs 1.5 lakh per month, resulting in their closure. Those in the rented premises were the first to shut down and it now the turn of those who are running from their residential premises, he says.
As per estimates by some playschool authorities, more than 30,000 teachers and other staff members have become unemployed in the last one and half year.
“Most of the playschools employ women in large numbers and they are the ones who are worst affected in this period,” said Popat.
