A year later, counting the Covid-19 pandemic's toll on school education

Price paid by India's less advantaged students: Likely fall in girls' enrolment, migration from private to govt schools, a deep loss of learning

“Hamein ek saal ki chutti hai, purey saal ki party (We have a one-year break, and it’s a year-long party),” says seven-year-old Shalom Rana, who studies in Class 2 in a government school in Dehradun’s Jakhan area.
 
Shalom, his older sister and brother are delighted that they are free to play all day and that they can help their single mother with chores. Like millions of other disadvantaged children in India who do not have a smartphone at home, the closure of schools owing to the Covid-19 pandemic has meant the end of all education for the Rana siblings.