Over 38,300 tweets were posted on Sunday between 2 pm to 6 pm in support of the #righttolearn protest over the blanket ban imposed by the state government on online education till standard 2. Parents, teachers and members of the education fraternity from three states Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh joined the Tweet storm demanding that the government regulate the decision and bestow the freedom of choice of education upon children.
Parents posted messages, pictures, posters and videos on Twitter highlighting the need for online education especially during lockdown. Suruchi Gupta, a parent and teacher, tweeted, "As a parent, as a teacher, I want my children to have the right to learn. Let this pandemic not stop them from learning. I support online classes." While Neha Mishra, an advocate posted, "Every child has the ability to learn differently and the choice of HOW should be given, not imposed! It's something that a child should relate to in this already disrupted situation."
Parent groups like Universe of Moms (UNIMO), Indore Mothers (INMO), and First Moms Club, teacher platforms like Teachers help Teachers and school groups such as Members of International Schools Association (MISA), Early Childhood Association (ECA) and Association for Primary Education and Research along with others participated in this protest. MISA and ECA had written to the state school education minister Varsha Gaikwad on June 16 to reconsider the blanket ban on online classes for pre-primary to Class 2 students as it would cause academic loss, affect learning among kids during lockdown and also lead to teachers losing jobs.
The Twitter protest focussed on three fundamental rights violated by the ban, right of children to learn through any medium, right of parents to choose what is best for their wards and right to work for teachers. Kavita Aggarwal, chairperson of MISA, wrote, "We have been working tirelessly to come up with a new working structure for the new academic session because it is imperative to understand that the process of learning and educating our children cannot stop."
Swati Popat Vats, president of ECA stated, "Long breaks from school may lead to academic, social, cognitive, emotional and psychological loss for students. Teachers will lose jobs if there are no online sessions." Francis Joseph, co-founder of School Leaders Network, tweeted, "If children do not have access to mobile phones because parents take it to work, the children can access pre-recorded online lectures later when their parents return home."
This protest was initiated as the state government released a circular on June 15 with SOP guidelines stating, "There will be no online classes for children from pre-primary to Class 2. These students can learn through educational content on TV and Radio." Varsha Gaikwad, state school education minister, said, "The blanket ban on online classes till Class 2 is to protect children of younger age from online screen time and instead divert them towards activity based learning through TV and Radio. We have taken this decision as parents have raised several concerns regarding online education for their kids." While, Rohan Bhat, member of MISA, said, "Instead of banning online classes completely for students till Class 2, we can work around new measures to provide e-learning for children."
