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School closure due to COVID-19 has disrupted the learning schedules of children worldwide. Even more so for children in remote and rural areas. Yuvi and Bunty are among those children. The two siblings live in the Kaspur village of Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district.

Before school closure, Yuvi would study at the village preschool (Aanganwadi), and Bunty studied in grade 2 of a local school. The sudden school closure disrupted their learning journeys completely until one day the two boys overheard their friends. While they were playing, they overheard a friend saying that it was fun to learn through a cellphone! 

A few of their friends also narrated the new things they had learned through the phone. Surprised and curious, Yuvi and Bunty approached their father, Tejram, and asked for his mobile phone. Now, it was Tejram’s turn to be amazed!

“How could one learn from a phone!” he wondered. Curious, like his children, Tejram approached a few people in the village, and learnt about ‘Karona, Thodi Masti, Thodi Padhai - a remote learning initiative by Pratham. Under this initiative, children in more than 12,000 communities across 20 states of India learn every day through SMS texts, phone calls, video calls, WhatsApp messages, radio and TV broadcast. 

Tejram also found out that as part of the initiative, many parents in the village had joined a WhatsApp group where they received a daily task for their children. Excited after receiving this update, Tejram approached his younger brother for the latter’s smartphone and became a member of the village WhatsApp group. Today, thanks to Tejram’s participation in his children’s learning and his brother’s timely cooperation for his nephews, Yuvi and Bunty learn something new everyday. They also enjoy completing the daily task sent as a WhatsApp message. 

The national lockdown has brought life to a standstill in almost every district, and one of its consequences is the closure of schools and Anganwadis. While there should be no compromise on issues related to health and public safety, it is also necessary to acknowledge that education could be a fallout of this decision. Millions of children across the country are waiting for schools to reopen and owing to the nature of the pandemic and its spread, it is unlikely that every district across the country will follow a consistent academic schedule. 

But learning must never stop! It is incumbent upon us to ensure that children remain in touch with the process of learning. We cannot rule out the possibility of learning loss in children due to the prolonged absence of school, and they could find it challenging to catch up with the process once schools resume their activity. Hence, it is necessary to reach out to millions of children across the country, engage with them through fun-filled learning activities, and ensure that with strengthened fundamentals, they are ready for schools to commence.

Pratham’s remote learning initiative aims to fill these gaps and reach out to children in two simple ways – through WhatsApp and SMSs. While the former helps us in reaching out to families who own a smartphone, the latter ensures that we do not exclude a large number of families who do not have easy access to smartphones and technology.

Through both these media, we are reaching out to more than 12,000 communities across the country with activities aimed at strengthening the fundamentals in Math, language and science. We also share activities focused on theatre, art and music. Simple learning activities shared in the form of a message are helping children like Yuvi and Bunty learn despite the closure of the school in their village. 

We need your support to scale and sustain this initiative so that more children like Yuvi and Bunty remain connected to the process of learning and more parents like Tejram participate in the process and ensure that their children learn despite life standing still due to COVID.