What Measures Are Schools Taking to Keep Kids Safe?

–Kakali Das |

Schools have re-opened partially in certain parts of the country. It has been 6 months since the lockdown and it is Unlock 4 and as part of it schools have re-opened from the 21^st of September. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Himachal, Sikkim – these are the eight states where schools have opened partially. There are many states including Maharashtra, Karnataka which are worst affected currently because of the rapidly increasing Covid19 cases are undecided at this point, including states like Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Bihar just announced that September 28 is when schools will partially be reopened, ofcourse for the students belonging from 9^th-12^th standard. Students have been allowed to come in only to clear their doubts. The centre has also put out standard operating procedures.

On being asked as to why haven’t schools opened in most parts of the country, Kanak Gupta, Director of Seth M.R. Jaipuria Group of Schools, “We understand that online teaching and learning is going on well but it is secondary as compared to the face-face experience that the child has in the classroom. I strongly believe that it will be an irreversible travesty if you don’t allow children to come back to schools. So I am glad that the government announced schools to reopen partially with precautions and norms in place and because education is a concurrent subject, it goes back to the states to take that responsibility. Our schools, the Jaipuria Group schools are primarily in the states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and we are contemplating about opening it from the coming week. I believe that schools haven’t opened up in most statesbecause of the apprehensions that parents have. Kids have been getting to interact with their friends and teachers. I was reading some of the tweets where kids are appreciating the fact that schools have opened up. But the parents and schools need to be really prepared to have kids coming back to schools since it won’t be simple, there will be a lot of checks and balances in place. They should be fully prepared for sanitisation of the school buildings and various other precautions including getting the parents on-board. There are a lot of mental anguish, emotional panic and let us not discount that. It’s absolutely alright to be scared.”

Schools should be allowed to function with 50% capacity keeping SMS (social distancing, mask and sanitisation) in mind. Kids should be allowed to sit at least 6 feet away from each other right now we are looking at grades 9-12 coming in voluntarily only for doubt clearance. It is important that these processes are in place, transportation facilities have to be properly sanitised by installing sanitization chambers, peddle sanitizers and deep cleaning of buildings. When the kids walk into the schools they should feel safe, secure and should not be threatened either physically or emotionally by coming to the school. It’s been 6 months that they have been away from the school building, it will take time for them to get acclimatised with the school processes. They will also be a lot of academic processes that will need to be re-visited; schools should collaborate with a lot of hospitals, medical facilities, which should come back in place as it is equally important.

Parents are extremely concerned because considering the fact that the government has shut down schools, the exams were cancelled at a time when there were merely 500-2000 cases in the entire country. At this point when we have an upward spike of 50 lakh cases they have thought of opening up schools; especially parents with younger children are nervous about it. The children of 8-9 years old can’t be asked to put on their masks all day; they are bound to be uncomfortable, they are sure to take it off, touch public surfaces. “I feel the children belonging to pre-primary classes would be very scared and rightfully so, this for all of us is a wait-and-watch situation. Let’s not hide the words by saying that everything would work out and etc. It’s absolutely fine being scared and I am too very scared”, Kanak Gupta further said.