Covid-19 (the Coronavirus disease) first emerged at the end of 2019. Unbeknownst to all of us, a seemingly small threat transformed into this massive predicament as it affected most of the global population. Consequently, Covid 19 was then declared a worldwide pandemic by WHO. Schools, businesses, and establishments were closed, and social distancing became the new common norm. The disease took the earth by storm with over 1,436,198 confirmed Covid cases and a mortality rate of nearly 6%, of which children accounted for only 1%-5% of the diagnosed covid cases (Tezer & Demirdag, 2020). Therefore, it can be safe to say that only a small percentage of children were affected. However further research showed that they can be silent carriers of the disease and pass it on to others. This raises a major concern, especially now, when most of the schools have reopened. An article published in the New York Times, “Can I Safely Send My Kid to Day Care? We Asked the Experts.” written by Emily Sohn debunks that by reporting “Between June 1 and July 30, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that only 52 people from 29 childcare centers had either confirmed or probable Covid-19. Nearly 19,000 children had attended those facilities, and most of the people infected did not spread the virus to others. Seventy-five percent of the cases also occurred in mid-to-late July, as numbers were spiking across the state.” Therefore, it is safe to say that it is possible for schools to run safely without the risk of a massive outbreak.

The aim of this paper is to explore whether it was necessary to go back to in-person learning when children were just now getting acclimatized to the new process of remote learning. Furthermore, many raise a point by saying children are safest at home, and it is completely unnecessary to expose them to potential covid risks by sending them outside. This paper will demonstrate the impracticality of that theory and why containing children at home is nonsensical and might even be dangerous at times.

The following passages attempt to explain why – even though Covid presents a certain risk to children and their encircling family members – children going to school is a great initiative. Despite the staggeringly low cases of covid among children, it will be wrong to presume that covid least affected them. While they were less susceptible to getting covid, the coronavirus has had a detrimental effect on their mental and even physical health. Firstly, let’s discuss the toll it had on their mental health. It is still important to highlight that due to a lack of proper care, awareness, and resources, many children in the U.S were already suffering from preexisting mental conditions. However, many received guidance from their schoolteachers, counselors, and even friends. Then the pandemic hit, and there was really no way for these kids to gain access to these therapies and such. Children, therefore, experienced loneliness and isolation because of social distancing, which also further affected their mental wellbeing. Many parents reported poor mental health outcomes in their children throughout the pandemic – in May 2020, shortly after the pandemic began, 29% said their child’s mental or emotional health was already harmed; More recent research from October 2020 showed that 31% of parents said their child’s mental or emotional health was worse than before the pandemic (Panchal et at.,2021). Therefore, this study establishes a direct link between the mental health of children and the effect of the pandemic together. For children and adolescents, mental health care is critical. Most mental health diseases begin early in life; therefore, it is essential to identify and treat mental health issues early in a child’s development. Ignoring their mental health can have a variety of detrimental health and social consequences later.

As mentioned earlier, containing children at home might pose to be dangerous at times. This is because of the rise in child domestic abuse claims during the pandemic; Another great counterargument to those who are in favor of remote learning. A problem that often went overlooked during the pandemic. Children were forced to spend far more time at home with relatives or parent/s, who may be the perpetrators of abuse. On top of that, the added stress of financial insecurity on parents may increase the likelihood of child abuse. A study conducted by Kovler et al. at a level I pediatric trauma center during the Covid-19 pandemic found that there was an increase in the proportion of traumatic injuries caused by physical child abuse at the center during the Covid-19 pandemic (Kovler et al., 2021). To these children going out to school was more therapeutic than anything and staying cooped up in their house with their abusers was hazardous, to say the least.

Having examined the effects of the pandemic on children’s poor mental health, it is essential to focus on how it affected their physical health. Fresh air and a healthy environment are required for a child to thrive. For children’s growth and development, an active lifestyle is important. The closure of schools meant that the children who were active at school had no other areas to express themselves. Most kids who relied on their school’s physical education classes or used their school’s playgrounds as a means of exercise to stay fit and healthy could not do that anymore. Tulchin-Francis et al. carried out a series of surveys, and they concluded that indeed children’s physical activity scores declined significantly during the pandemic (Tulchin-Francis et al., 2021). Iyer, et al (2021) claims that” Outdoor play makes children healthier. An active lifestyle is particularly important for the optimal growth and development of children. Restrictions due to the Coronavirus make this more apparent. We strongly recommend spending two hours a day outdoors, of which a minimum of one hour should be at least moderately intensive exercise.”

It is easy to argue that children could just moderately exercise in their neighborhood and sending them to school, for this reason, is redundant. However, the case is not that simple. In the article, “Parks make great places, but not enough Americans can reach them,” authors Joseph W Kane and Adie Tomer addressed that not enough households could access parks due to unreasonable walking distances. They wrote, “At the city level, researchers have long confirmed that park access is unequal. The size and location of parks can vary greatly from place to place, and a third of Americans in the 100 largest cities are more than a 10-minute walk from a park. City residents may also remain disconnected from parks depending on their income, education, and race.” The stress of the pandemic had also led children to have binge eating disorders. With nothing left to do sitting at home, they succumbed to poor diet choices. Many families reported that the stress of the pandemic had led to a poorer diet in children with an increase in the consumption of sweets and fried foods (Hoofman et al., 2021). Another research carried out by Ammar, et al found that daily sitting had increased from 5 to 8 hours a day, and binge eating, snacking, and the number of meals was all significantly increased owing to lockdown conditions and stay-at-home initiatives (Ammar et al., 2020).

Since the beginning of the pandemic, learning and development had been interrupted and disrupted for millions of students across the world. With schools closed, children had to adapt to remote learning. As online education was heavily reliant on the use of technology, in this case, did technology become the boon or bane? It might just have been the latter for those who had the least access to such resources. When studying from home became a common norm, not all the children were able to utilize that situation due to lack of access to computers or the internet. Minorities and people with low socioeconomic standing had the least access to technology, with the Blacks and Hispanics less likely than Whites to have computers and high-speed internet access at home. A study carried out by Mukuka, et al (2021) found that “More than 56% of the respondents did not have sufficient access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), electricity, and internet services.” These communities were, therefore, disproportionately affected by the lack of technology. Education became the sort of privilege that these groups of children could no longer afford. This reduced access to remote learning and lack of going to in-person classes meant poorer learning outcomes. Therefore, sending them back to school had to be imminent. Education was a basic human right, and the only way for these children to receive proper education was for them to go to school and attend in-person learning.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that for those who did receive remote instruction during the pandemic, their remote learning had significantly decreased – given that most students had less experience with it at the time. Some students were not able to cope with learning remotely, especially those with learning disabilities such as Dyslexia, ADHD, and Dysgraphia. A study done by Dorn et al (2020) supports this claim. “Our analysis shows that the impact of the pandemic on K–12 student learning was significant, leaving students on average five months behind in mathematics and four months behind in reading by the end of the school year. The pandemic widened preexisting opportunity and achievement gaps, hitting historically disadvantaged students hardest.” It also states, “High schoolers have become more likely to drop out of school, and high school seniors, especially those from low-income families, are less likely to go on to postsecondary education.” This is a horrifying claim, but it supports the fact that in cases like this, schools have no choice but to open. It further continues that,” as schools closed their buildings in the spring of 2020, students fell behind rapidly, learning almost no new math content over the final few months of the 2019–20 school year. Then they resumed learning through the 2020–21 school year, but at a slower pace than usual, resulting in five months of unfinished learning by the end of the year.” By examining all of this evidence, it could be said that remote learning is, therefore, less effective than in-person learning.

Food insecurity remains one of the biggest challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Hunger and food insecurity affected low and middle-income families the most. In USA Today op-ed, four Harvard Chan School faculty members noted that the percentage of U.S. households with children who were food insecure doubled from 14% to 28% during the pandemic with communities of color most affected. Many families depended on school meals and programs such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to provide food for their children. As of December 2021, 41.5 million people were participating in SNAP according to newly updated figures in the Kids Count Data Center. Minorities and families in the lower socioeconomic demographic who relied on school meals to feed their children once a day lost this opportunity with the closure of schools. For parents who are already dealing with unemployment, money insecurity, and the anxiety of contracting covid themselves, this added issue of food scarcity is already too much on their plates. To elevate at least one of these pressures off the parents, children need to be sent to school.

On the topic of education, a new debate sparked among people on whether teachers should be deemed an essential worker. According to the U.S Department of Homeland Security, essential workers are those who conduct a range of operations and services that are typically essential to continue critical infrastructure operations. On Aug. 18, 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released updated guidance that added teachers and teachers’ aides to the list of critical infrastructure workers. Other employees on the list include doctors, police officers, firefighters, and grocery store workers. In a video, White House Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, in a press briefing in late July said “It is our firm belief that our schools are essential places of business, if you will, that our teachers are essential personnel. Our meatpackers were meatpacking because they were essential workers. Our doctors were out there treating because they’re essential workers. And we believe our teachers are essential.”

This meant that teachers were now considered essential workers the same way nurses and grocery store clerks were. So, teachers were bound to report to duty whenever schools opened. This might make teachers more anxious as they would have to mingle with children all day in a closed environment. One can argue that comparing them to nurses and grocery store workers is unfair. This is because of the lack of social distancing among children at school. Children may not understand the severity of the situation and might not follow proper coronavirus guidelines such as maintaining masks and proper hygiene. It is a complete valid concern. But as mentioned before, it is possible for schools to run safely without the risk of a massive outbreak. Children spread covid around at a comparatively lower rate than adults. A study by researchers at New South Wales’ National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance in 2020 looked at staff and students at five primary schools and 10 high schools from March to mid-April found that, out of 863 people who were in close contact with someone with Covid-19, only two, or 0.23%, contracted the new coronavirus. The researchers concluded that transmission of the coronavirus “in children in schools appears considerably less than seen for other respiratory viruses, such as influenza.” Teachers are essential to avoid irreparable losses in the learning of students. It is crucial that the value of the teaching profession continues. Studies by Kini et al (2016) showed “teacher experience matters, particularly in the first few years of teaching. Teaching experience is positively associated with student achievement gains.” Therefore, it is essential for teachers to continue to go back to schools to teach the children. For which they must be appreciated and respected for putting their paranoia at home and bravely coming to school despite the risks.
The pandemic had a wide range of consequences for children, ranging from academics and social interaction to food security, education, physical and mental health, etc. Children have been through a lot this the pandemic and reopening schools is taking one step forward to going back to “normal”. If necessary, steps are taken to protect both teachers and children in school, this decision to reopen schools seems right and the decision should be respected.

 

 

 

---

References

Ammar, Achraf, et al. “Effects of COVID-19 home confinement on eating behaviour and physical activity: results of the ECLB-COVID19 international online survey.” Nutrients 12.6 (2020): 1583.
Daily Briefing. “Can Children Spread the New Coronavirus? Here’s What Research Says.” Advisory, 26 May (2020)
Hoofman, Jacob, and Elizabeth Secord. “The effect of COVID-19 on education.” Pediatric Clinics 68.5 (2021): 1071-1079.
Iyer, Vasanthi, et al. “Natuurlijk naar buiten! [Outdoors of course!]” TSG-Tijdschrift voorgezondheidswetenschappen 99.3 (2021): 125-127.
Kini, Tara, and Anne Podolsky. “Does Teaching Experience Increase Teacher Effectiveness? A Review of the Research.” Learning Policy Institute (2016).
Kovler, Mark L., et al. “Increased proportion of physical child abuse injuries at a level I pediatric trauma center during the Covid-19 pandemic.” Child abuse & neglect 116 (2021): 104756.
Kuhfeld, Megan, et al. “Projecting the potential impact of COVID-19 school closures on academic achievement.” Educational Researcher 49.8 (2020): 549-565.
Morales, Matthew. “Teachers Are Essential: Reducing the Barriers to Workers’ Compensation for Public School Teachers Who Contract COVID-19.” Health Law Outlook 12.1 (2021): 1.
Mukuka, Angel, Overson Shumba, and Henry M. Mulenga. “Students’ experiences with remote learning during the COVID-19 school closure: implications for mathematics education.” Heliyon 7.7 (2021): e07523.
Panchal, Nirmita, et al. “Mental health and substance use considerations among children during the COVID-19 pandemic.” San Francisco: Kaiser Family Foundation (2021).
Sohn, Emily. “Can I Safely Send My Kid to Day Care? We Asked the Experts”. New York Times (2020)
Tezer, Hasan, and Tuğba Bedir Demirdağ. “Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in children.” Turkish journal of medical sciences 50.SI-1 (2020): 592-603.
Tulchin-Francis, Kirsten, et al. “The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on physical activity in US children.” Journal of sport and health science 10.3 (2021): 323-332.
W. Kane, Joseph, and Adie Tomer. “Parks make great places, but not enough Americans can reach them.” The Avenue, 21 Aug. (2019): p. 1.
Westwood, S. “White House formally declaring teachers essential workers. Retrieved September 1, 2020.” (2020).