By Manjima Dhakal

Kathmandu, May 26: Education of preschool children, or rather lack thereof, has become a matter of anxiety for many parents. While older children have been able to maintain their academic engagement through the use of various tools and mediums, the same cannot be said about the younger ones.
Susma Basnet, who has a five-year-old daughter, is worried that her child may forget to read and write entirely. Her daughter's school does take an hour-long online class every day but that is well beyond the child’s attention span. “I can’t even make her sit for her class for a few minutes,” she said, making the whole online class exercise rather ineffective for her ward.
This has put Basnet in an awkward situation of having to pay for online classes while her daughter benefits very little from them.
The lockdown has made many parents concerned that their young children will neglect and ultimately forget their preliminary education, but child experts say that they have nothing to fear. They say that a certain period of break in their kids’ formal education will not hamper them. Children have a strong memory and can memorise contents very fast, even if they get involved in formal education a little late, they say.
Kunti Rana, executive director of Seto Gurans, an organisation working in the field of early childhood development, said that children could learn from the behaviour and activities of their guardians.
“Learning is not just about writing A, B, C and Ka, Kha, Ga and counting 1, 2, 3,” she said. “Parents can teach Mathematics, English, Nepali, drawing and others very well from their own activities. So, they should spend more time with kids and become friendly with them to create a good learning environment.”
Rana further stressed that online classes for preschoolers were not relevant and effective, owing to their young age and short attention span.
Similarly, Dr Meenakshi Dahal, an early childhood development expert, suggested preschools to orient their classes towards the guardians and not the children. She said, “Schools can teach the parents about ways to care for their children at home and develop an engaging learning environment.”
She too doubted that online classes would be much fruitful. “Children cannot concentrate and stay at same place for long. Every single child needs to be specially attended to while teaching. So, online classes held in groups cannot be effective,” she said.
Dahal also said that parents should breathe easily because their children will pick up school again in no time. "The main thing troubling parents at the moment is that their children may hesitate to join school after all this is over," she said, adding, “Young children can adjust to new environments much quicker than older ones. There is no need to worry about their education.”
Dahal also urged parents to observe their children rather than imposing things on them to nurture their creativity and support their development.