MCF - Covid Lockdowns Affects Schooling
A recent New York Times headline bemoans, India Schools Stay Closed, and Hopes Fade for a Lost Generation. Recounting the failure of remote learning during the Covid lockdowns - especially in rural areas with poor internet access - the article documents case after case of children who have fallen behind and disengaged from school over the past two years.
For two decades, the Mountain Children's Foundation, or MCF, has worked in the mountain villages of Uttarakhand to engage and empower children to transform their communities from within. We teach them first about their rights as children and responsibilities as citizens. We show them how to work together, as a children's group or sangathan, how to make decisions together and how to talk with their elders and the village leaders to get support in addressing their concerns. And we help them understand how to address the problems that affect their lives such as reversing environmental degradation, improving hygiene and sanitation and keeping their villages clean, building awareness about the importance of good nutrition, and taking care of each other and those in their villages who are struggling.
While there are no national board exams to measure such learning and accomplishments, the children have always risen to the occasion.
During Covid, young people in the villages helped MCF facilitators identify families who were in danger of going without food so we could get them connected to resources. They helped spread the word about the importance of handwashing, wearing masks and keeping a distance and encouraged their families to get vaccinated and the families listened! They also taught their families about the importance of keeping their homes healthy and clean. They have been planting trees to restore their forests, drawing pictures to process the trauma of the pandemic and so much more.
The closure of schools during the pandemic has set back the education of children across the world and has had an immeasurable impact on their mental health and wellbeing.
But the young members of the MCF have not let this time go waste and I am confident that they will come through the pandemic stronger and more resilient than before.
Smita Patel is co-founder of the Mountain Children's Foundation and a member of ICA. ICA helped the MCF get its start in 2002 and continues to support its work to empower children in the Indian Himalayas.
Co-Founder, Mountain Children's Foundation
Member, ICA
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Suresh Bajaj
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