Remember when you woke up as a child and heard the sound of rain and thunder, your first thought was to whisper, “Will it rain today?”Let us assume that there is a new form of rainy holidays in modern school life.Books have replaced tablets, chalkboards and smart boards. And the much-awaited rainy day “vacation” has been replaced by pollution-induced online classes and bomb scares.In a recent incident, several schools in Ahmedabad, Gujarat received bomb threat emails.The students dispersed, an investigation was launched and ultimately nothing suspicious was found. Yet the disruption was real.Such incidents are no longer isolated. They mark a change that few could have imagined – a change that is becoming increasingly routine.So, in this changing scenario, has the idea of a holiday suddenly changed too?Technology is no longer an add-on; This is ideal. Distance learning now runs parallel to physical classes. Since Covid, technology has been intricately integrated into the daily lives of students. Online classes have become the default response to disruption. For today’s children, a canceled school day no longer translates to freedom.But in maintaining continuity, something else has changed.But the bigger question is, how is it reshaping the academic landscape? And more importantly, what is it doing to the children growing within it? Are repeated pollution warnings and bomb threats becoming routine? Is a generation gradually becoming desensitized to threats that should raise alarm bells?In the golden days of one’s life, the topography of school life has changed extensively.For caregivers, the transition brings layered emotions. It is a relief to know that education no longer fails at the first sign of disruption. Technology provides stability.Still there is uneasiness also. A nostalgia for simple obstacles.And somewhere between nostalgia and necessity, a new version of school life is quietly taking shape – a version that no one fully anticipated, yet a version that an entire generation is learning to call normal.
“Rainy Day” login
Parents describe a marked change in school life post-Covid, where technology and online classes have turned from an emergency measure to the default backup for almost any disruption.Bengaluru-based parent Tejash Tarun explains how even logistical inconveniences now encourage digital transformation rather than cancellations.“Even for relatively minor issues, such as renovation of the road on the last stretch leading to the school, classes are no longer cancelled. Instead, the school will send notifications for one week of online classes,” he says.Their observations highlight a broader structural shift. Continuity is now more important than interruption, and the idea of breaks once embedded in school culture is steadily disappearing.Radhika Ashok Kumar, another parent, also notes that administrative and logistical needs are increasingly driving online learning.“Last year, school was the center of boards. So some sessions were planned online.”But online classes come with their own challenges. Tarun highlights the physical demands that online education imposes on homes.He says, “If a child is attending classes from home, they also need a proper space to study. Secondly, they need a suitable device. It can’t just be a mobile phone for a few minutes. A laptop or computer is a must.”He further highlights the shortcomings parents face in their professional lives, saying, “In the case of working parents, and with work-from-home arrangements in offices largely over, if a child’s school suddenly shifts to online classes, it creates an immediate challenge. “They may have to take leave or try to manage work from home if the option is available.”An idea widely promoted as institutional flexibility may, at the domestic level, translate into logistical tensions.
Space, screen and social life
The place of learning has expanded beyond school campuses.Across conversations, there is widespread agreement that offline school is irreplaceable for social, emotional and overall personality development – there is “no substitute” for going to school for real-world interactions with peers and teachers, learning social norms, and building discipline and routines.Delhi-based parent Manish Masoom, whose child’s classes have seen a shift to online due to the implementation of GRAP measures, shares the importance of real-world interaction compared to online classes.
He says, “Ideally, children should go to school, sit in class and learn with others. After all, humans are social by nature. Whether the reason is pollution, a strike call, or any other disruption, moving to online classes creates its own problems.”Tarun further explains how he sees subtle lessons embedded in everyday school life.He says, “Beyond education, school is where children learn community interactions. A classmate can borrow my pencil today; tomorrow, I can borrow their notebook. These small exchanges teach cooperation, sharing, and understanding.”When asked about the shortcomings of online classes, parents highlighted the lack of preparation their children receive from offline classes.Radhika shares, “For lower grades, I think it was still manageable, at least in my son’s case. But in higher classes, I have seen children struggle in subjects like mathematics, science and chemistry.”She further adds that online classes often lag behind in preparing students for a comprehensive understanding on pressure, as she says, “When students were in class 9 during the online session, some of them could not build a strong foundation. As a result, when he moved to 10th class, he found it difficult to handle the academic pressure as his basics were not clear.
In preserving academic calendars, schools have inadvertently widened the ideological gap. And to top it all off, screen time has emerged as another uphill battle for parents.For some, e-learning sessions have significantly increased the number of hours their children spend in front of the screen. For others, avoiding screens altogether seems nearly impossible.Parents point out that online classes add a non-negotiable stretch of screen exposure to a student’s day. However, in addition to this, television, mobile phones, gaming and social media are continuously contributing to digital engagement.In a scenario where education itself is mediated through devices, setting boundaries is no longer as simple as taking the gadget away. It becomes a delicate balancing act, requiring academic need to be weighed against cognitive comfort, connectivity against overexposure.
Shadow in the Hallway: The New Security Normal
If digital transformation represents one dimension of change, recurring bomb threats and fake emails represent another. This not only becomes a logical issue but also affects the emotional atmosphere.When it comes to bomb threats and fake emails, parents’ memories revolve around a new kind of routine disruption. But what effect is this new chaos having on children? Where is this taking their sensitivities, and how are schools and parents able to handle it?In a unanimous vote, parents shared that the schools have done a commendable job in managing the situation without creating unnecessary panic among the students. Evacuation may or may not occur depending on the intensity of the threat, but students were certainly not told to panic.The evacuation was carried out peacefully, without causing direct panic among the students, and with clear and timely communication with parents.
Bomb threat in Indian schools
For relatively young children, parents found that it was best for them to keep the situation a secret.Neha Arora, a Delhi-based teacher and parent, sheds light on this viewpoint. She says, “Given how young the children are, the school made no effort to explain the situation to him in clear or direct terms. We have also deliberately kept him away from such news and events, as he is still too young to fully understand these concepts.”However, older children operate in a different information ecosystem. Being able to access has increased their curiosity about what happened.Akansha Ashu tells how her 15-year-old son reacted after his school was evacuated following a bomb threat message. She explains how curiosity shapes her reactions.“My son became deeply involved in the discussions. Putting everything else aside, they started talking about who was involved, who might be the culprit and who did what,” she says. “He didn’t enjoy these conversations, but there was no real sense of fear in them. “They didn’t even seem scared.”Innocent on the inevitability of information flow in the digital age. He further adds that his son is generally curious about the happenings around him. Despite being only 10 years old, he reads and understands everything.He attributed this awareness to access to technology. Whether they talk about certain things or not, children continue to explore and understand on their own and as a final step, they come back to their parents for answers.He says, “In today’s situation, whether I explain things to him or not, he already knows a lot. This information reaches children directly. Even if he does not watch the news, countless content creators are discussing such topics in different ways, some in a serious tone, some humorous or dramatic.He adds, “Naturally, when children are exposed to such content, they become curious. They try to understand it at their own level and then come to us with questions.” He’s only 10 years old – but he definitely knows a lot more than we expected.
new scenario of normal
At first glance, the paradox may seem almost apocalyptic. But history reminds us that every generation grows up in a version of the world changed by its times.What we’re seeing today isn’t just a change in the way schools operate — it’s a change in the sense of “normal” for kids.The simple thrill of an unexpected vacation, the shared pause when life slowed down for a while, the innocence of escaping from bigger worries – these small but meaningful parts of childhood are not vanishing, but reshaping themselves.In their place is a system optimized for stability, but one that asks children to constantly adapt while still keeping their curiosity well maintained.The question now is not whether education can continue amid the disruption. This clearly can happen.The more important conversation lies elsewhere: As schools evolve between nostalgia and necessity, how do we preserve the human rhythms, the joy, the pauses, the sense of spontaneity of the school day?
