Nationwide, daily Covid-19 case additions are still above the 30,000 mark. Parents are worried inadequate social distancing and lack of proper hygiene on school premises may leave their children vulnerable to the coronavirus.
Schools across India are set to resume physical classes from the third week of August. This is on the back of Covid-19 daily case additions dropping below 40,000 and concerns about academic continuity being affected due to online classes.
However, parents such as 46-year-old Prakrit Malhotra are a worried lot. Malhotra, a Mumbai-based financial services professional, is not keen to send his children — 17-year-old son Sanjay and 14-year-old daughter Mahima — back to school just yet.
“I contracted Covid-19 twice despite my best efforts at hygiene, wearing masks and social distancing. What is the guarantee that their school will observe all these rules throughout school timings,” he asks.
In Maharashtra, schools from classes 8-12 will reopen from August 17 in urban areas while only classes 5-8 will reopen in rural areas. State Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad had said on August 6 that schools will be reopened only in areas with consistently low infection rates.
In Maharashtra, schools from classes 8-12 will reopen from August 17 in urban areas while only classes 5-8 will reopen in rural areas. State Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad had said on August 6 that schools will be reopened only in areas with consistently low infection rates.
The second wave of Covid-19 has been fierce in India and schools that had reopened temporarily for a few weeks in January 2021 shut physical classes by mid- February. Between April 2020 and April 2021, there were barely 3-4 weeks of physical classes across schools in India.
According to a UNICEF report, the Indian education system is one of the largest in the world, with more than 1.5 million schools, 8.5 million teachers and 250 million children from varying socio-economic backgrounds.
Moneycontrol had reported earlier on how there are concerns about school dropout levels rising due to students not having laptops or smartphones for online schooling.
Sanjeev Khanna, founder of EduDesign Consulting, which works in the area of school education, told Moneycontrol that it is high time schools reopen.
“Yes, there are concerns surrounding the pandemic. But a third of students don’t have the financial resources to attend schools online. Why should they continue to suffer?” he said.
What are the concerns?
Once schools resume physical classes, online lessons will be discontinued. So, parents will have no other option but to send their children to school.
“Last time (December 2020-February 2021), parents could decide whether to send their child to school or not. This time, no such option is being given and it is unfair,” said Savita Shetty, a home-maker from Bengaluru.
Shetty is worried about whether her 15-year-old son will wear his mask throughout the school hours or not. She added that the school has about 380 students between classes 9-12 and it wouldn’t be feasible to keep checking everyone’s masks.
Karnataka will reopen school for classes 9-12 on August 23. It has proposed an odd-even scheme for students, where they will split into two batches, coming to school on alternate days.
Temperature checks at entry/exit will be mandatory at all schools across India. However, each school will have to frame rules on what to do if a student falls ill during school, including quarantine rules and Covid testing for others sitting close to him/her.
Questions over vaccination
Apart from the behaviour of their own child and other students (wearing masks and social distancing), there are worries about the vaccination status of school staff and RT-PCR test reports.
No State government has released guidelines on the rules for entry of school staff/teachers onto campus yet.
Karuna Mascarenhas, Principal, Blossom Valley Public School in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, said that with no formal rules stated, each school will have to take its own decisions.
“It isn’t possible for us to mandate entry for only fully vaccinated teachers and other staff. However, everyone above the age of 18 years has been told to take at least one dose of the Covid vaccine,” she explained.
On the question of getting RT-PCR tests done as an additional measure, Mascarenhas said that schools will not be bearing the costs. “How do we decide how many times a teacher has to get an RT-PCR? Should it be once a month, twice a month? There could be anomalies in this, too,” she explained.
The Tamil Nadu government has announced that schools will reopen from September 1 at 50 percent capacity for classes 9-12. Standard operating procedures are expected to be released soon.
The way forward
While the decision to reopen has been taken by States such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh (on August 16, for Class 11-12 students), others such as West Bengal are still undecided.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on August 6 that the State government may reopen schools after the Durga Puja vacation in November 2021.
Considering that fears of contracting Covid-19 still loom large, parents want the option to let their children continue attending online classes.
“Let schools reopen for students who are unable to attend online classes due to inadequate facilities at home. Till the cases come down below 5,000-7,000 a day, there should be alternate modes like recorded lectures or live online classes for students who don’t wish to be sent back to school,” said Uma Sable, a home-maker from Mumbai, whose 16-year-old daughter studies in a State government school.India added 35,499 fresh Covid-19 cases in 24 hours as of August 9 (8 am), and had 447 deaths during this period, according to an official bulletin. There are 402,188 active Covid-19 cases in the country.
