Less than 50% of children able to catch up with age-appropriate learning, claims survey

• Over 48,000 students participated in the Smile India foundation survey covering 22 Indian states.
  
• 58% of teachers notice children getting distracted easily and lacking social decorum.
  
• Parents are more involved with their ward’s curriculum following the pandemic.

Less than 50 per cent of children are able to catch up with their age-appropriate learning following the COVID-19 pandemic, a new survey on learning loss and education recovery revealed.

Over 48,000 students participated in the Smile India foundation survey, covering urban, rural and aspirational districts of 22 states.

"According to teachers, less than 50 per cent of children have been able to cope with the learning loss over the last two years," it said.

"These are mostly those students who have been regularly performing well prior to the pandemic as well. Hence, bringing the rest of the students to par with their expected learning level will require some time and effort," the survey said.

Fifty-eight per cent of teachers noted that children have missed out on social skills and now get distracted easily, it added. "Their attention span has gone low."

Forty-seven per cent of them admitted there is an increased interaction between parents and teachers, it said.

"Thirty-eight per cent of parents started interacting with teachers by visiting schools. There is a 27 per cent increase in parent-teacher meetings attendance. Fifty per cent of parents interviewed felt the absence of digital learning resources like devices, networks, and data packs made the learning experience inadequate for the children during the pandemic," the survey said.

Thirty-one per cent of parents' most preferred mode of learning during the pandemic was direct classes in offline mode or cluster classes, it said. The survey also revealed that worksheets and visits by teachers “were very convenient and useful."