Radhika, a Class V student, seems to be lost in her own thoughts, recalling the good old days when she was a role model for the whole class. She seems to have lost the very purpose of her life. All she could do was to help her mother in her daily chores.
 
Despite being enrolled in a public school of repute, she is not able to attend classes. Her father, Ram Lal, a cobbler, enrolled her in the school under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category. It was a dream come true for Radhika as she had never imagined that she would ever study in such a prestigious school. All through, she has been a bright student, a cynosure of the teachers.
 
Ever since the Covid-induced lockdown was announced, she has lost touch with her teachers. Unlike her classmates, she does not have access to the Internet. The basic phone her father has cannot serve the purpose. 

On and off, the school has been asking them to buy a smart-phone so that she can at least attend classes. But Ram Lal had no savings left and no income to purchase it. They were barely able to manage two meals a day. The lockdown had robbed their peace of mind.
 
Luckily, Ram Lal had no compulsion to pay school fees. Once the schools reopens after the lockdown, Radhika still has a chance to go back to school. Of course, she may lag behind her fellow classmates. She was promoted recently as the government directed the schools to do so. Like Radhika, tens of millions of children have lost access to schools.
 
These children may not be from the poorest section of the society. In fact, even the lower and upper middle classes have been dragged into a similar situation. Many don’t have money to pay school fees, nor the resources to afford separate devices for all their children. Many have lost their jobs and many have to face a huge salary cut. The concept of digital school is only for a few privileged, 30 per cent, to be precise, if a survey is to be believed.
 
The question is: What will happen to the remaining 70 per cent? Last week, a news-report revealed that around 2.5 lakh children dropped out after passing Class IX from Maharashtra alone in 2020-2021. The report is based on the huge gap in enrolment for the Class 10th board exam. 

If this is the story of one state, the overall condition in the country can easily be imagined. The state board officials explained this gap as the result of the migration of families to their native states due to job losses.
 
To an extent, they might be correct. Ideally, this should have led to an increase in the enrolment in their native states. In the absence of correct data, one cannot comment on it. Nevertheless, it should act as an eye-opener to the government, both at the centre and in the states.
 
The second Covid wave has already wreaked havoc in several ways. The virus has been taking new shapes. Even the scientists are not aware how it will look like in a few months to come. Many have already warned of a third wave, with disastrous effects on children. It is difficult to think of a scenario where the schools are reopened. And even if they are reopened, many parents may not send their wards to the school, like last year.
 
Now, what does it mean for millions of children, who have already lost access to education? Do they have any option? What about their right to education? Will they ever see themselves in a school? The answer seems to be in the negative.
 
The Indian economy has been in the doldrums. The unemployment rate has shot up to around 13 per cent during May 2021 as per data published by the centre for monitoring Indian economy. While the central government has taken a backseat, various state governments have been taking decisions to impose restrictions or to give some relaxations. The path to economic revival seems to be unclear.
 
For people, who are already in a hand-to-mouth condition, one option for survival is to ask everyone in the family to look for work. This does not exclude children. Last year, we saw a similar trend picking up. In fact, horrifying tales of children, especially girls, being traded for sex are already doing the rounds.

The question is what exactly this country wants its youth to look like in future? Semi-literate cheap labour with charred childhoods being exploited for work in the factories? Or educated young contributing citizens, aware of their rights and wary of their dreams?
 
Once the children are allowed to drop out of the education system, it may take years to bring them back. Since independence, the government has had to devise several schemes to ensure that children at least enter the school premises, be it in the name of mid-day meals or the money that is given for books and uniform. 

Despite these efforts, around 60 million children in the 6-13 age group were out of school even before one could think of a pandemic. This is based on the analysis done by the national sample survey office in the year 2014.
 
This works out to 2.97 per cent of the total children in the country. The ratio is less compared to 4.28 per cent in 2009 and 6.94 per cent in 2006. But the fact is that it took nearly eight years to reduce the number to nearly 50 per cent, if one looks at the achievements made in 2014 against 2006! Allowance also has to be made for the fall in the fertility rate.
 
Without going into other factors hindering growth in school enrolments, one can easily infer that the speed of getting children into the schools slowed after 2009. Incidentally, this was the year when the Right to Education Act was actually enacted. In fact, its stringent regulations viz-a-viz infrastructure and lower pupil to teacher ratio led to the closure of thousands of affordable budget schools. Even state-run schools could not fill this gap. Not only this, a few state governments, Haryana in particular, have been closing government schools with less than 25 students.  
 
No doubt, running a school with just 25 students is uneconomical. But should the government not work on rejigging its education policy, analysing what went wrong and how it could be improved.
 
Imagine a scenario when the number of out-of-school children increases to the level of what it was in 2006 because of the pandemic. Yes, many reports have been suggesting this. How many years will it take for the government to return to the levels of 2014. Mind you, we are not even thinking of 2020 – the exact pre-pandemic period in the absence of clear information.
 
The government took another decision of cancelling the board exams for Class XII conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education citing safety as a concern. Yes, holding exams would have certainly exposed the students to the virus thereby putting their lives to risk. But has the government thought of the fate of these children? Will they be able to enrol for the courses of their choice? Will they not lose interest in further studies?
 
It was important to take this decision but the government think tanks should have come up with a solution to this issue. Should we not think of making use of our demographic dividend lest it should become a liability? 

If digital education has to become a new norm till the time we all get an assurance that our invisible enemy is no longer a threat to us, the government must think of an alternative to reach the unreached. It should play its role effectively. This is the least we expect from our elected representatives.  
 
(The writer, a company secretary, can be reached at:  jassi.rai@gmail.com)