Learning to grow

States should give school reopening priority

Now that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 appears to be receding and 75 per cent of the adult population have been administered two doses of the vaccination, states are addressing the question of reopening partially locked-down economies. Inevitably, with the economy and employment-creation languishing from pre-Covid times, the focus has been on reopening shops and establishments, malls, hotels, gyms, beauty parlours, and so on, since these are all sources of employment and demand. Largely overlooked in this discourse, however, is the prolonged closure of India’s schools. Here, too, the discussion and concern have been centred on access to digital learning,