Since the outbreak of Covid-19, more than a billion children have experienced school closures across the world. Closing schools may slow the contagion.
But, they harm children's mental health. Even without a pandemic, 10 to 20 per cent of children and adolescents worldwide experience mental disorders. Evidence suggests that this figure will spike with school closures.
School closures and lockdowns deny children the outdoor exercise that could check weight gain. They also drive them to the television, computer and mobile phone.
Feeding on junk food while glued to their digital screens compounds their weight problem. Children who spend more time with digital devices than in the playground risk mirroring such behaviour in their adulthood.
Ordinarily, children who are engaged in outdoor activities are less likely to get fat. They also shy away from bad habits, such as smoking or taking drugs. This healthy lifestyle gets them better grades and better-paying jobs in the future. Covid-19 has put such a good life at risk.
The school orders a child's life: rising early for school, physical education classes and sports, regular breaks and meals, and camaraderie among friends. With school closure, classes have migrated online. Although online classes enhance children's digital skills, they also have downsides.
Teachers and children may not be equipped for it. A study in the Netherlands disappointingly found that during the spring lockdown last year, the average pupil had learned nothing. Those with poorly educated parents came out from their first two months of online schooling knowing less than before.
Without teacher and parental supervision, children are tempted to play video games and surf the Internet, sometimes well into the night. They lay about in bed in the mornings as there is no school to wake up to. Such behaviour may well be carried into adulthood with ill consequences to their mental and physical health.
Poorer children especially may have to do without the nutritious school meals. They can also be disturbed by parents falling sick or unemployed. Unlike richer parents, who often coach their children and enforce a strict study-regimen at home, poorer families may not be able to do so, worried, as they would naturally be, about how to feed their children.
All this can blunt learning among these children. Worse, these children may even lose interest in learning. All this will potentially widen the gulf between their exam scores and that of more well-off children.
Parents play a vital role in ensuring that their children get the best out of online learning. They have to ensure that children focus on their studies and monitor their progress regularly. And, they should constantly listen to their children's concerns and prioritise their needs.
Research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a rich-country club, suggests that the students in grades 1-12 affected by school closures might expect some three per cent lower income over their entire lifetime.
Also, the risk of contagion is not high among schoolchildren. Evidence suggests that those under 18 are a third to a half less likely to become infected. Therefore, the government should reopen schools at the first sign of easing of the lockdown. And schools should help children make up for lost lessons.
Teachers too play a great part in a child's well-being. Upon school reopening, teachers should be vigilant of mental-health issues among children. School counsellors should step in to counsel such children or encourage parents to seek such counselling.
The pandemic is not going to go away anytime soon. It has upended normalcy in children's lives. No amount of online learning can replace a real-life teacher. Video games and being on the Internet cannot compensate for the loss of social skills that would have been acquired otherwise in school.
All this is bound to have a lasting impact on children's cognitive, health, and emotional and social development. Concerted action by education authorities, parents, teachers and health personnel is needed to meet the psychosocial needs of children during the pandemic and beyond.