Social Emotional Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This article offers a review of resources that have been put forth globally, with an emphasis on resources and the common threads among them that can inform how we approach education beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, with resources tailored to parents, children, and educators.

- Anchal Sharma

The COVID-19 public health crisis has presented our communities around the globe with unprecedented health, socioeconomic, and human rights challenges. While the virus does not discriminate, health disparities caused by poverty, racism, and other social ills has led to stark inequalities in terms of which communities have been most severely impacted by COVID-19. The constant flood of information on these compounding challenges add to our worry of being infected by the virus, concerns over job security and economic upheaval, and loneliness caused by social isolation. This overwhelming multitude of fears and concerns can lead to major psychological risk factors, such as anxiety, depression, and so on.

India is one of the severely affected countries and is trying its best to overcome the crisis and adapt to the new reality. Nearly all the nations have responded to this public health crisis in part by closing their schools, affecting close to 80 per cent of the world’s school-going population, according to data from the World Bank. While children seem to be less vulnerable to severe illness resulting from COVID-19, staying away from school contributes to a tragic situation for children, particularly those who rely on schools as a safe learning space, for feeding programmes that provide a main source of nutrition, and for fulfilment of their social and emotional needs.