India Pandemic School Closings Imperil ‘Demographic Dividend’

In South Asia, Sri Lanka has decided against closing schools, while in Nepal, they are shut until at least the end of January, despite the near impossibility of remote instruction in the Himalayan countryside. Swamped with new infections, Bangladesh reversed an earlier decision to allow vaccinated pupils to attend class, closing schools down for all students.

The repercussions can be especially dire in South Asia. Girls are entering into child marriages, and boys have abandoned their education to work.

The Rev. Nicholas Barla, a Catholic priest who has spent decades working with schools in rural communities, said that during recent travels to remote corners of India, he witnessed children reeling from boredom and isolation.

“The mental growth that should have taken place stopped,” he said. “It is tragic, because education is the only path leading out of darkness and the miseries of rural poverty.”

India’s working-age population is projected to peak at 65 percent in 2031 before it begins to decline. It’s a potential asset that India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has celebrated, as recently as this month.

“The strength of the youth will take India to greater heights,” he declared at a youth festival.

Typically a large share of the population entering the work force would be an economic boon. Now it could prove a burden, as undereducated and underemployed people in a welfare state like India end up consuming a larger share of resources, from free medicine to food subsidies.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/world/asia/india-schools.html