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Pandemic impact on child nutrition and education: A growing socioeconomic issue 

02 Oct 2021

  • UNICEF urges governments to reopen schools
  • Education Ministry to reopen schools in stages
By Sarah Hannan Covid-19 is exposing South Asia’s deeper social and economic frailties, as household incomes are impacted due to job losses, making it harder for poor families to provide nutritious meals for their children. The increase in food prices coupled with the interruption in the supply of essentials to the markets has also made this task even more difficult. According to estimates by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), even before the pandemic struck, more than 240 million children in South Asia were categorised as poor, whereas in Sri Lanka, around 268,000 children were living in multidimensional poverty. It is predicted that these numbers could swell, as income from overseas worker remittances and tourism dries up, cutting into household incomes, and reducing the money that families can spend on healthcare, nutrition, and education. In early May, a survey carried out by UNICEF in Sri Lanka showed that 30% of families had already reduced their food consumption. Of these, over 80% reported reduced consumption of proteins such as meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products, and 54% reported reductions in consumption of fruits and vegetables. Given that before Covid-19, 39% of children did not consume any iron-rich foods, this change in diet is likely to worsen the rate of malnutrition among already vulnerable children, with potentially life-long consequences. Learning hampered UNICEF, meanwhile, observed that repeated school closures due to Covid-19 had led to learning loss and widened inequities in South Asia. School closures in South Asia due to the Covid-19 pandemic had interrupted the learning of 434 million children. According to UNICEF’s research, a significant number of students and their parents reported that students learnt significantly less compared to pre-pandemic levels. In Sri Lanka, 69% of parents of primary schoolchildren reported that their children were learning “less” or “a lot less”. Girls, children from disadvantaged households, and children with disabilities faced the biggest challenges while learning remotely. UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia George Laryea-Adjei, commenting on the situation, said: “School closures in South Asia have forced hundreds of millions of children and their teachers to transition to remote learning in a region with low connectivity and device affordability. Even when a family has access to technology, children are not always able to access it. As a result, children have suffered enormous setbacks in their learning journey.” Despite significant efforts from governments, low connectivity and access to digital devices have severely hampered efforts to rollout remote learning. Poor and disadvantaged households have been the worst hit, with many families struggling to afford even a single device. Even when devices are available, UNICEF’s research indicated that they were often underutilised and that children’s access to them is often limited. The research found that student-teacher engagement, when regular and reciprocal, is a strong predictor of success in children’s learning, especially for younger students. However, the surveys found that most students had little or no contact with their teachers after schools closed. In Sri Lankan private primary schools, 52% of teachers reported contacting their students five days a week, but this number had dropped to only 8% for teachers from public primary schools. Laryea-Adjei also added that all governments should give priority to the safe reopening of schools, whilst investing in teachers to ensure that teachers and schools can adapt to all situations. He pointed out that teachers should be trained, equipped, and supported on distance and blended learning, so they could reach all their students. “This is a critical investment we need to make for children as the region gears up for future waves of Covid-19. We need to build systems which can weather any storm and keep children learning, no matter the circumstances,” Laryea-Adjei elaborated. Reponing schools the only solution While UNICEF urges governments to prioritise the safe reopening of schools, The Sunday Morning spoke to Ministry of Education Secretary Prof. Kapila Perera on the present status of education in Sri Lanka and queried whether the online and distance learning methods implemented here were successful. Responding, Prof. Perera noted: “The Ministry is co-ordinating with the Zonal and Divisional Education Directors to gather the necessary information to monitor the extent of lessons delivered through online learning methods, WhatsApp groups, and through home-based learning methods. Accordingly, only about 30% of students had access to lessons through online learning methods. If you take the North-Central Province, only 12% of the student population had access to online or distance learning methods.” Prof. Perera elaborated that the Ministry of Education was, therefore, looking at reopening schools at the earliest possibility to ensure that children can resume their education effectively.   He also added that once schools reopen, the Ministry will give priority to conduct the practical exams for General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary Level (O/L) students, giving them sufficient time to rehearse for their practicals after returning to school. In the case of conducting the GCE Advanced Level (A/L) and Grade Five Scholarship examinations, the Ministry of Education Secretary stated that, as soon as schools reopen, these students will be given the opportunity to sit for a term test, which will provide them the opportunity to adjust and have some practice to sit for the national exams. On Friday (1), Uva Province Governor A.J.M. Muzammil announced that all primary schools with under 200 students in the Uva Province were set to reopen from 18 October, and Southern Province Governor Willy Gamage said that all schools with under 200 students in the Southern Province were also set to reopen for academic activities on 21 October. Meanwhile, later that day, Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena announced plans to reopen schools in several stages starting this month. Teachers’ return hangs in the balance? With the Government now preparing to reopen schools with less than 200 students, The Sunday Morning asked Ceylon Teachers Service Union (CTSU) General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe whether teachers were prepared to return to schools to resume teaching. Responding, Jayasinghe noted: “It is now over a month since the Cabinet decision was announced with regard to addressing our salary anomalies. However, we are yet to be given a meeting with the Minister of Finance to further discuss this matter. It has been 80 days since we started our trade union action and all that we have received as solutions were the recommendations that the technical committee had come up with to address our issues. These recommendations are now being forced upon us. Until we are given the opportunity to discuss matters with the Finance Minister and arrive at an agreement, we will continue the trade union action.” Further commenting on the Government’s decision to reopen schools with less than 200 students, Jayasinghe noted that the Teacher-Principal Trade Union Alliance was currently discussing their next course of action, and their stance would be communicated to the public once they had taken a decision. Moreover, the alliance requested the principals and teachers of these schools to refrain from participating in any of the meetings, as the trade union action was still in effect. When asked about the measures the Ministry of Education planned to take should the trade unions continue with their strike action even after schools reopen, Ministry of Education Secretary Prof. Kapila Perera stated: “We all know that we cannot conduct lessons in a school if the teachers are not present. I believe that the teacher-principal trade unions received a definitive solution for their salary issue. Therefore, I urge the teachers to consider the plight of the children who are deprived of their right to education, and prepare to resume teaching once schools reopen.”

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