Corona-virus has made everybody’s life upside down. Though COVID-19 lockdown was imposed to prevent in spreading the virus for children, it was nothing but bored to tears vacation. Kids didn’t get to enjoy it at all. No outings, no celebrating birthdays, or attending any functions. Stuck up at home children are now being pressurized to attend online classes.
The school which instructed parents to keep their children away from a cell phone is now insisting on phone use as a medium of education. Children sitting for long hours with phones in their hands are ultimately spoiling their health. Now the real dilemma arises, online classes are a source of education or alarming bells of a health crisis?
After doing some research, I came across kids of 3rd, 4th, 5th standard, some pre-primary kids attending online classes. The kids, for whom the radiation of cell phones is considered too harmful and damaging, are forced to attend lectures because the school wants to do its duty and charge their dues.
They want to present an idea of learning, and perhaps show the government that they are contributing to shaping up kids’ futures! But the truth of the matter is, kids are staring at a screen for long hours, hunched over, glued to screens without breaks, the class starts at 9 Am and goes till 2 PM, that’s a dangerous amount of screen time for a child!
Due to this, kids are complaining about headaches, watery eyes, neck pain, and severe cases of sleeplessness and that is just the beginning. According to neurologist Dr. Sushil Tandel, children as young as seven will develop hunchbacks and curved spines because of the hours spent bending over smartphones and tablets.
Parents, who raise red-flags about online classes are bullied by the school administration, in some cases, their kids are rusticated from school!
School is not merely a place of knowledge, it is business now, biggest corporate in India, which is brutal, ruthless, and filled with crooks, who aren’t much worried about health as much as their next pay-cheque!
