Study centres offer an alternative path to learning for children of tea plantation workers, whose education have been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: HLDRC
The Human Life and Development Research Centre (HLDRC) has launched 37 study centres to help cushion the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the education of poor and marginalized children in West Bengal’s tea plantations.
Two years of the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed many marginalized children out of school, according to HLDRC, a Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) partner. It will take about five years to bring the situation back to normal in tea garden area schools, according to a field-based assessment conducted by HLDRC.
HLDRC, which is one of the initiatives of the Jesuits of Darjeeling, has reached out to 1,130 students in Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts. “If we get financial resources, HLDRC plans to reach out to another 500 poor students this year,” said Fr. Pascal Xalxo SJ, HLDRC Director.
Learning together at the HLDRC study centre Photo: HLDRC
The study centres are equipped with teachers who work part-time, and college students who volunteer their skills and time. HLDRC said its study centres have created opportunities for “tremendous community engagement.”
The pandemic has affected more than 1.5 billion children and youth in 186 countries, and hit those from poor and marginalized communities the hardest, according to UNESCO. As schools closed and pivoted to online learning, those without access to computers and the Internet were simply left behind. “UNICEF data shows that, for at least 463 million children whose schools closed due to Covid-19, there was no such thing as ‘remote learning,” said then UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “We also know that the longer children remain out of school, the less likely they are to return. At least 24 million are projected to drop out of school due to Covid.”
In many parts of the Global South, the pandemic pushed children into work to help their struggling families.
