The school closures in India due to the COVID-19 Pandemic have been among the longest in the world. For close to 18 months, 265 million students have not been to school. 

The report, “A FUTURE AT STAKE -Organizing the Education Recovery for the Most Vulnerable”  states that India is facing an education emergency like none other since independence. The report was released by The National Coalition on the Education Emergency (NCEE), a network of  like-minded organisations that have come together to address the problems created by school closure for the past nearly two years.

And as the schools are gradually re-opening, a new concern has crept up in the minds of educators and parents alike, how will children cope up with the vast gap that has developed in their academics? 

This is the second episode in the two-part series on schools reopening all over the country. In this episode of The Suno India Show, host Kunika Balhotra speaks with Dr Sajitha Bashir, the author of the report, to understand what steps schools and governments should take to address this education emergency.

Dr Bashir is a former Adviser in the Office of the Global Director of the Education Practice in the World Bank, where she led the work on Digital Skills. She co-authored the regional publication The Converging Technology Revolution and Human Capital: Potential and Implications for South Asia. Prior to joining the World Bank, she was head of the national research and evaluation unit within the Government of India’s national District Primary Education Program. She is a core member of the National Coalition on the Education Emergency in India. 

Show Notes

A FUTURE AT STAKE -Organizing the Education Recovery for the Most Vulnerable

Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2021

Locked Out: Emergency Report on School Education