My daughter is five. She has been home and zoom-schooled since schools shuttered in Delhi in March 2020.

Of late, I’ve begun to hear voices asking the vital question, ‘when will schools open?’ The answers range from the unreal to a terrific amount of hate.

Why do I say ‘unreal’? Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi CM had this to say when asked about reopening schools. “Those who are seeing the international trend know that the third wave will come soon. So, till the vaccination process is not completed, we will not take the risk with our children,”

What does he mean by completing the vaccination process? Is it the teaching staff that was never prioritized OR the general adult population of whom 90% are yet to receive double vaccinations OR is he talking about the children for whom there is no approved vaccine yet?

COVID19 has been nothing short of devastating for us. We’ve lost people we know, old & young. I’ve attended online prayer meets for the departed and hustled for oxygen and hospital beds for friends. My 5-year-old was infected and I waited for her temperature to break from 103 degrees Fahrenheit at 3 am. I am scared of COVID19 and its many threatening mutations.

Still, the time has come to move beyond fear. 170 countries over the world have managed to open schools as they have overcome fear and logistical challenges to discharge their duties. Various experts and task forces manned by scientific advisors and educators have all agreed on one thing. Schools must reopen as the losses from school closures outweigh any benefits gained from a shutdown.

Serological studies have shown that the exposure of children to COVID19 has been similar to adults’, something that is not altogether surprising. While we kept our educational institutes shuttered, 55.7%[ children in sero-surveys across 5 cities have found antibodies indicating exposure.

Yet, we have found it very comfortable to keep the schools shut. We see statements by celebrity doctors, some psychologists, occasional quotes by educators and even Twitter support from industrialists. However, no action. Not even the semblance of a plan.

Why is this the case?

The answer is simple and sobering.

It’s simple because we are stuck in the worst possible equilibrium and the stakeholders have no initiative to move out of their current positions.

First, let’s take the schools. The Delhi High Court struck down the Department of Education order that limited their ability to collect fees. Private schools are able to collect up to 85% of the fees they would otherwise charge. Upon some research, I found that 460 schools went to court to plead against the DoE order. Several private schools in Delhi are being able to run without financial distress. Certain smaller and less known private schools are facing difficulties but are not organised enough to have a voice.

Read: Kids, adults have similar antibodies: AIIMS Sero Survey

Second, let’s consider the parents. In the countries where schools opened, working parents had a voice. Schools were and are a big part of child care and a scenario where parents or mums had to give up work in order to manage the online schedules of their kids was absurd. Let’s take the case of Delhi, women workforce participation in the city stands at 10.6%. In the middle class and above families, women have silently taken on this additional burden of chaperoning their kids in the online classes. As for those with lesser means, they do not matter.

Third, let’s see this from the point of view of children. At first, there was fear of what would happen to the ‘board exams’ but school boards have devised formulae and hence after sitting at home for 16 months and for the most part avoiding any examinations done in a classroom setting, students are completing school with the highest pass percentages ever. Students from the age of 3 years and above sit in front of the screen and perform dance routines, yoga asanas, learn to write Akshars and cheat gloriously on tests from the confines of their homes. The children are simply numb and they do not even see an alternative. My daughter asked me what the lockdown was like when I was her age. She assumes everyone must have had one.

So you see literally no one has an incentive to move out of the status quo. The ones impacted the most are unable to voice their concerns with the state or the schools.

It’s sobering because experts believe that the number of out-of-school children in India are set to double post this prolonged closure. The NSSO 2017-18 household survey had put the number of out-of-school children in India (6-17 years) at 3.22 crore. Most of these children will never return to the education system. Take a moment, let that sink in.

This is a problem of economics and incentives. It is easy and hard at the same time. Easy because signalling by an economic incentive (or disincentive) can solve this and hard because no one cares enough.

If schools were to receive fees in proportion to the actual instructional hours, several would have shuttered. As that wouldn’t be allowed, the same 460 schools that petitioned against the DoE order would have petitioned for an opening. But this isn’t going to happen, is it?

If parents were to put an economic value to the time spent by them (not the middle class and above, where 89% of the women do not work but the lower middle class and below) in online schooling and demand fair compensation for the loss of productive time, the government would have opened schools. But what is more likely is that their children will simply drop out and they will judge at a later stage if there is any merit in sending them when schools do open.

Now coming to the children. There are a few life stages and economic classes at play. For simplicity, let’s say there are the younger kids (under 10s), the older ones and then those who are from economically weaker backgrounds. The younger kids overwhelmingly want to be at a playground, socializing with their friends and teachers but they are not seen to be in critical education years (a separate topic altogether) and hence whatever limited opening one does see are for Class 9 to 12 students. The older ones are comfortable enough with the formula-based approach to granting marks. The others are seriously impacted but really do they even have a voice?

One day, we will be judged for the harshest school closure in history. As educators, parents and the state, we have failed in our duty to discharge education. We have all failed the children and the virus is the least to blame.

As a mother, I will strive every day for what I think is right for my child. I will listen to science and question biases. I will persevere in the face of anonymous trolling. Only and wholly, because I have the privilege of an education. Something I hope our children are able to get in the near term.

(Author Simran Khara is running a start-up and zoom-educating her daughter. She’s an alumnus of ISB, Hyderabad, London School of Economics (UK) and Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University. Views expressed here are personal.)