Anusuya Aryal

People started a new life in quarantine to be safe and the quarantine life is accompanied by psychological and socio-economic consequences. Following the lockdown guidelines, the educational institutions had no option but to shut down. As the whole COVID situation in the country got even more obscure, the government proposed virtual-learning, which, without doubt, did sound like an effective alternative but it was but a vague concept, a potential “what if” as majority of schools and students in the country did not even have access to electronic gadgets, let alone the internet.

As per the survey conducted by Indravati Rural Municipality, it was found that less than 10 per cent of the students have internet access at their homes, and dozens of households didn't even have television sets. Rather, they only had radio as their source of news and information. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended various countries to consider vaccinating children aged 12 to 15 only when high vaccine coverage with double doses has been achieved in the high priority groups as identified in the WHO prioritisation roadmap. The Ministry of Health and Population has been providing vaccines to the general public since 27th January 2021, but as of yet, only 27.7 per cent of the total population has been fully vaccinated. The vaccine recipients are the citizens of over the age of 18.

Virtual learning
So, seeing how the virtual learning system does not seem to be effective and people under the age of 18 still remain unvaccinated, what appropriate decision can the government take now? What can the next best step to ensure good and equal education to children be? Should the government opt for physical classes or should they let the online classes be as it currently is?

It seems like the government deemed the resuming of physical classes to be fit, for the in-person classes have opened from the first week of Ashoj 2078 BS. Looking at how constant the COVID-19 cases appear and the fact that majority of the total population of Nepal happens to be unvaccinated, letting the educational institutes operate physically may not seem like the brightest of ideas. But looking at how a huge gap was found between students who had access to the internet and those who did not, the government may have come to the conclusion that opening the classes physically would have been the best choice for the time being.

But all in all, conducting physical classes is by no means a good idea as there are a lot of things to be concerned about in order to ensure the safety of people. Firstly, assuming that the physical classes do start operating like normal, majority of the students who have to travel by school bus won’t be able to maintain proper COVID-19 safety protocols, including the maintenance of distance. Given the situation, it is highly risky and yet they remain safer than the students who have to travel through public vehicles. The students are already under the risk of getting exposed to the pandemic before they even reach the school.

Secondly, the educational institutions in question cannot maintain the safety protocols themselves. So, if a single person gets infected, it won't take long for the rest of the school members to get infected as well and this is a most likely scenario as the crowd that assembles during the launch break is inevitable. Looking deeper into this, the students will also have to go through a lot of psychological problems. Provided that students have been given proper orientation on COVID-19 and its safety protocols, the constant fear of getting infected and transmitting the virus to the family members definitely affects the students and causes them to lose focus in their studies.

Psychological impact
There have been several reports of psychological impact the pandemic has on the general public, patients, medical staff, children, and older adults from all over the world. According to the reports presented by the Elsevier Public Health Emergency, about 24.9 per cent of students have experienced anxiety because of COVID-19 outbreak. It has also been found that, for students who live in urban areas with their parents having a stable family income, they have much less chance of experiencing anxiety during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, for the students with relatives or acquaintances who have been infected with COVID-19, the whole stressful situation serves as an independent risk factor that has a high chance of triggering their anxiety.

According to a research conducted by the Consortium Nepal, it was found that the lack of children friendly quarantine and isolation centres in hospitals have been affecting the lives of children who have tested positive for COVID-19. So, it is not just the paranoia of testing positive for the pandemic that affects the mental stability of children but also the fact that those who actually end up getting infected by coronavirus end up feeling distressed, helpless, lost and confused.
As students' mental health gets enormously affected when faced with public health emergency, it should be understood that they need adequate amount of attention, assistance, and support from the community, family, and most importantly, the government.

(Aryal is a student at St. Xavier’s College, Kathmandu.)