An Open Letter to Schools and Parents

Dear all,

It is with great distress that I am drafting this mail. We, adults, have been conveniently ignoring the impending menace that the ongoing online classes are yet to bring.

Why are we blindfolded to the consequences that would last for years to come and the cost an entire generation has to pay? Their future!!

Though I might sound to be overstating or overreacting, I am pretty sure of the negative impact it’s gonna have on the children, the so-called future of India or whichever country they belong to! 

Online learning and the present academic sessions have the students stuck to the screens for hours together. Other than their regular classes and schoolwork, children would want to be involved in activities of their choice too.

They are already left with almost negligible interaction with the outside world. All this results in limiting a child’s world to a mere smartphone/ laptop/ PC. which in turn results in an addiction to the gadgets. 

A few findings from the observation of my child’s normal day:

The school session starts with the morning assembly at 8.30 AM or a little earlier sometimes. This session ends at 2.30 pm or a little later, sometimes.  Of course, there are some exceptions again.

Tuesdays and Thursdays the school ends at 3 pm for NCC cadets. This session often resumes at 6 pm in the name of fitness or Athma Nirbhar Bharath or some other hyped nationalist concept. 

And yes, that’s not it! Apart from the regular school sessions,  students are engaged in some or other internet activity in the name of project work or notes that are sent online for copying or browsing for extra information regarding the topic.  

Also, there are home works and class works to be submitted, personal group interactions with the class for some activity they are to present the next day and it goes on. All this, yes, adds on to their screen time. 

As per the norms of Dept of School Education & Literacy Ministry of HRD, Govt of India, the online synchronous learning should not be more than four sessions of 30-45 minutes each on the days as decided by States/UTs. 

Telangana State government has issued similar guidelines for online classes capping the screen time to 3 hours for Classes IX and X. 

However, the reality is different and dreadful. Schools in the name of online learning have been asking (or to be honest, forcing) the students to attend these online classes for extended hours.

For my son, it is 4 hours 30 minutes and more than 5 odd hrs on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This comes up to 166% higher than the guidelines that are recommended. 

Whatever I have mentioned above is just the academic part of it. Other than this, the children would like to watch television or some videos, interact with friends and family (distant) through video calls, attend class group messages or friends group messages and this list goes on.

Summing all this up, the children’s screen presence is higher than most of the adults working from home. It is not an exaggeration,  It’s the reality! 

These children have been confined to homes for almost 7 months now. They had negligible social interaction, physical activity and outdoor play with friends. All these are very crucial for their overall psychological and physical growth. 

It is very sad that the teachers and the school management are ignoring the fact that physical health and emotional well-being are a part of a child’s education and growth. Pity, that none of these is considered while practising digital education. 

Seems like, parents and the schools just want the child to excel in academics. But ignoring her/his other needs is detrimental to the child. What good are the academic sessions without the child being physically, psychologically and emotionally fit?? 

Let’s not talk about the damage that all this could do to their eyes. Because all that seems quite petty to me now, when there is much more to talk about.

What is stopping us from seeing the fact that children spending more waking hours in front of screens than ever, could lead to serious mental health issues?  

COVID-19 pandemic might last for a few more months. But, the impact it will have on these children is going to last for years and might cause irreparable damage to their psyche.

As a parent, it’s tough for me to watch my child go through all this. I wanted to withdraw him from the online classes. But, the child is reluctant to do so. He wants to continue as that is his only mode of communication to interact with his peers and teachers. 

And yes, it’s not just about my child but the whole generation that is under threat. 

Hope this mail comes to you as a wake-up call. I request you to quickly look into the matter and do what is needed to rescue the younger ones. Either refrain from organising the online classes or take the required measures to restrict the child’s exposure to the screen for such prolonged hours.

I hope you understand that am not trying to find fault with the system and consider this as constructive criticism.  

Thank you!