The safety and sanitisation of school buildings and the ability of teachers to help children maintain social distancing norms are on the minds of parents as coronavirus cases increase, and apprehension about sending children to school grows.
The ministry of human resources department (MHRD) last Friday had sought suggestions from parents on their preferred month- August, September or October- for schools to reopen, but the Jharkhand Parents Association, also known as the Jharkhand Abhibhavak Sangh, had written to the MHRD, asking them not to reopen schools unless the Covid situation improves.
More than 50 email responses from parents have been sent to the MHRD from across 24 districts in the state.
“It is very hard to imagine that parents will be willing to send their children to school in spite of the daily rise of cases in the country,” said Ajay Rai, president, Jharkhand Abhibhavak Sangh (JAS).
“School is a place where thousands of students gather, so it puts a question mark on the following of social distancing norms, thus putting children at high risk,” he said.
Parents are also unsure of whether students will get required psychological counselling.
The JAS has also requested the MHRD to announce the 2020-21 academic year to be a zero year and promote students tautomatically.
Although many parents aren’t satisfied with online classes due to the quality of learning, they feel sending their wards to schools is more risky.
“Children won’t take care of themselves as they are careless. Also, it won’t be possible for teachers to maintain all the WHO (World Health Organisation) norms where there are so many children. Many countries had opened their schools only to see their children getting infected. When there are so many bare examples, why do we agree to take the risk?” said Namrata Singh, a parent.
Schools are also not keen to reopen, as they aren’t ready to bear responsibility if the contamination spreads.
“I hope the MHRD will only allow schools to reopen when the situation normalizes or we get a vaccine,” said one of the principals of a private school affiliated to CISCE.
