Mumbai: 67 per cent parents want their children back in school, finds survey

Photo for representational purpose. Pic/ istock

About 67 per cent of parents in Mumbai are willing to send their wards back to school, reveals a recent survey by an EdTech firm.

The findings also stated that 59 per cent of respondents felt that their children suffered learning loss due to the Covid-19 pandemic, while 22 per cent were of the opinion that vaccination of school staff should be the top priority to ensure full physical attendance.

The study was conducted by EdTech company LEAD amongst 10,500 parents in metro and non-metro areas, whose wards study in Classes 1-10.

As per the survey, 55 per cent of metro parents rated social distancing as most critical, followed by healthcare facilities (54 per cent) for sending their kids back to offline studying.

Also Read: Mumbai parents share hard lessons from a year of online learning

Further, the survey indicated that majority of parents (63 per cent) felt that engagement in a physical classroom leads to better social interaction amongst children.

"The last year and a half has not been easy for teachers, principals, schools and most importantly students. Children belonging to the low-income strata faced the maximum learning loss due to inaccessibility of data and devices. Our survey shows 67 per cent Mumbai parents are willing to send their children back to school. Schools need to be treated as essential utilities," said LEAD Co-founder and CEO Sumeet Mehta.

The study also stated that only 40 per cent of parents in non-metros said that their children studied on a personal computer, while close to 60 per cent metro parents indicated that their child learnt on a computer/laptop even after a year into the lockdown.

Another area of concern was only mothers being involved in the studies of their wards. About 70 per cent parents of both metros and non-metros said both the parents were involved in their children's learning activities, the share of ‘only mothers' being involved in their studies was higher in metros (21 per cent) as compared to non-metros (18 per cent).