Delhi Government Study to Assess Impact of Closure on Students in City Schools | Latest News Delhi

The Delhi government will conduct a study to assess the impact of prolonged school closures and the shift to online learning on the mental health and emotional well-being of students in the city.

Senior officials of the Delhi Planning Department, which commissioned the study, said it will cover students across the spectrum — boys and girls; different grades/age groups; and from different social and economic backgrounds—to provide insight into how students from different backgrounds responded, adapted and coped with the Covid-19 pandemic. The survey will be conducted for students from classes 1 to 7 as well as parents and teachers through personal interviews from all 28 educational zones in Delhi.

“Schools have been closed for over a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The stay-at-home measures and prolonged lockdown have brought about major changes in the lives of parents, teachers and students. The pandemic has exacerbated learning loss and adversely affected the health and well-being of students. Teachers have been forced to adapt to the digital mode of teaching and create new assessment methods,” said the tender document released by the department on Friday.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has allowed schools to resume attendance classes from February 7 for students of classes 9 to 12. Offline classes for junior classes were reopened on February 14, as per the DDMA order. School administrators said they are now focusing on bridging learning gaps and facilitating students in the offline stream. For the first time since the pandemic began in 2020, schools were allowed to operate without a 50% classroom capacity limit.

The Delhi government has provided training to teachers to conduct online lessons and is using social media platforms to conduct happiness lessons. Parents and students were also sent daily happiness activities via text messages and voice calls (IVR).

“Against these challenges and government initiatives, it is essential to generate evidence on the impact of the pandemic on students and teachers in order to recognize their needs and meet their expectations when schools reopen. The government therefore decided to assess the impact on the mental health and emotional well-being of students in Delhi schools due to the closure of schools due to Covid-19 and the shift to an online education system, and to understand the impact on students, teachers and parents of the sudden change in methods. of teaching due to the pandemic,” the document said.

According to government data, there were 4.48 million students enrolled in Delhi in 2020-21. For the purpose of the survey, a total of 8,400 students, 1,680 parents and 1,680 teachers will be surveyed for schools in 28 zones in Delhi. The report will have to be submitted to the planning department by May 27. Schools will also be selected from areas such as JJ clusters, resettlement colonies, unauthorized colonies, government colonies, rural and urban, and girls’ and boys’ schools, so that the students selected for the study represent all social and economic backgrounds.