The National Coalition on the Education Emergency (NCEE) undertook a study of poor households in Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu to understand the lived realities for children who had to cope with the 18-month-long disruption in schooling that was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted through a survey of parents. To our knowledge, this is the rst survey of its kind that has been conducted after schools began re-opening in India. Around 500 households having 900 children between the ages of 6 and 18 were covered between September 2021 and January 2022. This paper presents the methodology and Indings of this study that were originally published in (NCEE, 2022). The Indings reveal the report 'Cries of Anguish' deep issues in the system through which thousands of children have been falling. The study also brought to attention the resilience of these families who seem to have been failed by the system and yet carried on with the hope that the opening of schools would prove to be the light at the end of their tunnel. It would be a shame and a grave injustice for their 'cries' to go unheard and for their children's rights to continue to be violated.
Keywords: online education, pandemic, school opening, socioemotional development, equity concerns
This research paper was published in the second issue of Children First Journal on Children’s Lives published in August 2022, focused on the theme “Second year of Covid-19: Disrupted Childhoods, Disrupted Education”. It is a bi-annual and peer-reviewed journal launched by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR)
