Study by Quest Alliance: Over 7% children in state lost at least one family member during second wave

It also revealed that livelihood, education and nutrition were three parameters worst impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“More than 40 per cent of learners of both genders in Gujarat were worried about future studies. Also, more than 15 per cent of learners of both genders in Gujarat were worried about migration,” revealed the findings of the survey conducted between March and April 2021, among 4,184 students of classes 8-9 in government schools across 16 districts of Gujarat.

“The report findings are complete and the Gujarat specific findings were released Friday. The other state findings would be released in the coming days,” Neha Parti, Director Schools Programme, Quest Alliance, told The Indian Express on the sidelines of the Quest2Learn Summit organised in Ahmedabad Friday.

Quest Alliance, a not-for-profit trust that works in the field of education and skill training, facilitates learning networks and collaboration to bring about systemic change fuelled by research and innovation.

Further, 7.02 per cent shared their families would want them to get married early, a higher percentage of boys indicated that they were worried about being asked to get married as opposed to girls.

“As a clear impact of losing an earning member, family incomes shrinked which had a detrimental impact on students’ education, family income and nutrition levels. 40 per cent of kids were worried about future education due to either financial constraints or due to forced migration,” said Neha Parti.

Another finding of the study mentioned that 12 per cent children reduced their intake of nutritious food in India due to loss of livelihood in their families.

“The number however was as high as 29 per cent in Gujarat. Students had reduced the consumption of dal, rice, vegetables, pulses, eggs, meat, fish protein and milk which clearly impacted their health and nutrition. In fact, according to the study around 45 per cent of students in Gujarat faced mental health issues such as depression and anxieties, which was higher as compared to other states,” Parti added.

Another report titled ‘Subject-choice determinants and career aspirations among secondary school students in Gujarat’ was also released Friday. This mapped the preferred subjects by secondary school students based on geographies and identified the factors which drove their decisions. The study was conducted across 16 districts among 300 Class 10 students.

“49 per cent of the surveyed population wish to take up a combination of Science and Commerce. The ratio of girls was higher in social sciences (44 per cent) and commerce (26 per cent) whereas that of boys was higher in science (37.5 per cent),” according to the study.

One of the findings of the study is that distance from place of education, grasp of the subject, managing housework and classwork and job opportunities are some of the key factors that lead students to make their subject choices. The value of each varies between streams with ability to manage housework of lesser concern or not a factor determining their choice of science.

Additionally, the study highlighted the importance of role models within the family in aiding students to negotiate with their parents on their subject choices.
“Schools can play a pivotal role in facilitating role model interactions with parents. Our work with government schools has shown that young girls benefit from such interactions and are able to develop agency to better negotiate their choices,” added Parti.