Parent Trap - The Travails of Parenting in the Pandemic

At WhiteKettle, a lot of our partnerships have been centred around working with children from underserved communities and empowering them through access to quality education. This year, along with the adaptations made by educators and partner organisation in the transition to digital education, another factor that has come to the forefront has been the role of parenting in fostering a healthy learning environment, especially in families where education continues to remain a privilege and less of a right.

*A teacher travelling to her student’s home, who does not have any access to devices. Source- PTI*

Every house a school, every parent a teacher

Suddenly being charged with monitoring children’s learning milestones daunting, especially for those who’ve never been educated themselves. As India’s literacy rates continue to positively grow with first-generational learners, we still have one of the world’s largest adult illiterate population. The pressure of taking on the responsibility of education has made these parents acutely aware of their shortcomings in this area.

When Yuvraj’s job as a valet for a Mumbai hotel became defunct this April, he noticed was that he was spending more time with his son than he ever had. A Nepali immigrant, he is only functionally literate and has never been able to help his son out with his schoolwork before. While in the past, he was not greatly bothered by this setup, he is worried that this year, his son’s school is not doing enough to prepare him for his 10th grade exams. “I have no way of finding out whether he is studying enough, especially since I’ve begun working again and we share a phone among us.” However, he refuses to sit back and instead is using this as an opportunity to play a more proactive role in his son’s education. “I may not be able to help him with his homework, but I am making him highlight dates on our calendar for when he has to submit important assignments and making sure that submits his homework on Whatsapp when I come home from work.”

Navigating the digital divide, one day at a time

The well-documented digital divide has made it very clear that online education is still a hurdle for many students even months into the pandemic. Parents working in the informal sector are unable to ensure that their children keep up with weekly classes due to cost-intensive factors (digital devices, stable Internet connection, electricity supply) and more so during a protracted period of unemployment for them.

There are still some however, who are grateful that this period has positively changed family dynamics and ensured that their children’s education has not suffered despite financial constraints and job insecurity. Rohini, a care home nurse is one of these people-Since her husband couldn’t continue working as an electrician, he took on the household chores and also helped his children out with their homework on his smartphone. Rohini admits, “Because he was at home, our children were able to continue attending online classes, which would have not been possible if we were both required to work. Of course, it has caused more fights between us now that the roles are reversed, but most importantly, we haven’t had to pull out our children from school like so many of our relatives and neighbours have had to do.”

Job insecurity has changed relationship dynamics within the family

However, thousands of parents in similar situations across India have had to choose between employment and their children’s education. The inability of parents to afford school-related expenses when their savings have diminished has forced them to de-prioritize schooling for this year or even permanently for many. Many uneducated parents place a lot of value and pride in their ability to ensure that their children are successful first-generation learners. Making this difficult decision has also forced them to confront the change in attitudes their children may have towards them for failing to provide for their fundamental needs.

Key Insights for education partners

While some may be forced to these difficult decisions due to economic reasons, there are still instances of hope from those who are desperately trying to adapt to make sure that their children do not lose out or even worse, lose respect for them. We too as collaborators will have to adapt- the usual roadmap for education interventions will have to expand to recognise the importance of family dynamics and parental involvement in bridging the education and digital divides in India.