Schools and Early child care centers (ECCD’s ) across the country have been closed for the last three months following the COVID-19 pandemic. The closure has deprived children of learning opportunity in classroom settings. And with the government’s recent announcement on the transition to the new normal, classes PP to VI will not be opening for this academic year.
Many parents in the capital shared concerns that this new normal will deny a whole generation of children, the experience of learning during the most formative years. They shared there is a need to find a way out.
Three-year-old CZ started going to ECCD towards the end of last year. Since the closure of schools and ECCD centres in March, she has been spending most of her time at home trying to learn with her parents. And like her many pre-schoolers and pre-primary students will remain at home attempting to learn for the rest of the year.
Dechen Roder, CZ’s mother, shares her thought on the importance of early education and nurturing children’s growing interest in schooling. “She was in daycare in the Early Learning Centre. And she loved it and every day she asks when she can go back to the ECCD? And because she is so interested in learning and she loves life and she is curious, I worry that because at this age even six months makes a huge difference to a little child. I worry that in six months she won’t have the interest anymore. The spark will be gone. And for other children who just started class PP and I, they might never learn to enjoy school. They will just be promoted to class II and never having had that foundation,” she said.
In addition, with discontinuation of work from home and ECCD centres and primary classes closed for the rest of the year, working parents shared that it is going to be difficult to help their children continue their learning.
“As a working parent myself, we don’t know how we can continue working full time right now because we don’t have a child care provider at home and we don’t have grandparents close by and I know many other families must be in a similar situation. And some parents must be giving up work or cutting down work and this affects income and it affects livelihoods,” she added.
Dr Karma Tenzin, working in Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan has a three-year-old daughter enrolled in one of the daycare centres in the capital. And with the closure of all educational institutions in the country due to COVID-19, he worries over being unable to impart the much-needed child development education, a trained teacher could easily do. “For us, the constant worry is that our children are not learning much because we aren’t able to give time to them. Even if one of us was not working, we won’t be as efficient as a teacher who is trained to teach and facilitate and which is age-appropriate. I feel that as a parent we won’t be achieving what a teacher would achieve in terms of learning,” he said.
Education experts share that early learning from home has become a new challenge to both children and parents during the coronavirus pandemic. And thus, parents feel there is a need to find ways to address this.
“I wish we could in making these decisions consult more people outside of health and consult the specialists and consult the ECCD and school providers as well. Because so far what’s been done, is an assumption that something will fall into place on the side and that they don’t have to take a guiding intervention. But that’s not going to happen because everyone has something at stake here and so everyone needs some sort of help, we need some kind of structure and I believe the best way is to consult together and collaborate to come up with better solutions instead of just closing it with a no school for children up to this age,” added Dechen Roder.
“For the last three and a half month or so, my daughter has been there at home. Though the ECCD centre undertook virtual teaching, it is very difficult when a child is just three and a half to four years old. We tried for a couple of days but it wasn’t working. So we just left it and that way I feel that Ministry of Education as a regulatory agency which looks after the functionaries of all the ECCDs in the country should look at and strategize how do we make these ECCD centres functional,” added Dr Karma Tenzin.
Meanwhile, ECCD centres are worried that the government’s decision to close it for the rest of the year would not only put their sustainability at risk but also take away the learning experience of pre-schoolers.
Seday, the Centre Director of Smiley Early Learning Centre in Thimphu, shares the importance of keeping young children engaged. She says reopening ECCDs with all preventive measures in place will benefit all parties: “If we are left to open and if we take all the proper measures then I think it’s going to benefit all. Because most of the parents have to go to offices and the best place for them to keep their children is with us in the ECCDs where proper care can be given and we will be teaching them wholesome education.”
“As per guidelines from the Ministry of Health, if the centres are left to open then it will be beneficial to the working parents plus children won’t remain idle. We have instances where children from our centre aren’t as active at home as they are in the centres because most of the parents cannot guide them properly,” added Kinley Yangtsho, the Centre Director of Kuenphen Early Learning Centre in Phuentshogling.
According to an education expert at UNICEF South Asia, brain development is particularly rapid below the age of five and delays in development during this period can lead to lifelong consequences in terms of learning abilities. Moreover, being confined restricts opportunities for early stimulation such as exposure to the outside environment and other children. Thus, it’s important to ensure that younger children continue their early learning at home despite closures.
Sonam Pem
