Bhubaneswar: Although most of the parents are unwilling to send their wards to school, many educational institutions have claimed that they have thoroughly sanitized the school premises and have ensured all the safety measures to resume classes.
Loyola School authorities said that they have thoroughly cleaned the school premises and are regularly sanitising the classrooms and other infrastructure. They are ready to divide each class into small groups for maintaining social distance.
“We have a very spacious school area and are waiting for guidelines from the state government. We are in talks with parents and most of the parents wants online classes and don’t want to send their kids to the school. We will start online exam for all students. We are just waiting for instructions from the government about the reopening of schools. It will be very tricky for us to physically conduct classes at school for half of the students and online classes for another half,” said the sources at Loyola School.
ODM Public School Principal S Minaketan said, “Closure of schools due to pandemic has affected the teaching-learning, examination and co-scholastic activities for around eight months across India despite all efforts of alternative on-line provision. The students, their parents and teachers-all are facing unprecedented challenges, constraints, limitations and hazards due to this.”
The students are the worst hit as their scholastic and co-scholastic growth is being adversely affected and interrupted. The government has issued the guidelines for reopening of schools in phases adhering to the SOP (standard operating procedure), which I welcome. However, all the stakeholders – the schools, parents, teachers and students – must have to abide by the government guidelines with sincere support, responsibility and cooperation ensuring utmost safety and security on the school campus, Minaketan added.
St. Xavier International School Chairman BN Patnaik, said, “We strongly feel that the present situation is not conducive to reopening of schools. The school infrastructure would not support the measures to be taken to prevent students from novel coronavirus infection. The decision should not be hasty and should not expose student and teacher community to the dangerous Covid-19 pandemic which is still virulent.”
A majority of the parents of the students of Class IX to XII is not in favour of resuming regular classes by November 16, 2020 as we will be exposing the students as well as teachers to the deadly virus. Any decision of resuming regular classes should be taken only after an elaborate discussion with all the stakeholders like Parents Association, Teachers Association, School management representatives and medical experts is held,” Patnaik added.
BJEM School Principal Sandhya Jena said, “We are cleaning the school precincts fully and had successfully conducted the NEET at our school, as per initial SOP. We are also in talk with parents and will seek consent of every parent before allowing their kids to the school. We will also focus on Class X and XII more because of Board exams. We believe that the schools would reopen after November.”
SAI International School Principal Nilakantha Panigrahi said, “The school will issue a consent form to be duly signed by the parents allowing their wards to attend classes at the school. Maintaining social distancing in classrooms by having flexible, staggered and reduced timings has been planned. Disinfection of classrooms and furniture, in between and before and after classes, would be mandatory.”
Asking only a certain percentage of students to attend the school depending on the enrolment, rotationally on alternate days, or every two days in a week and combining with home assignments could be another mechanism, said Panigrahi.
Alternatively, he said, there could be a weekly class-wise timetable for attendance. All classes need not attend school every day. The odd-even formula for classes could be worked out, he added.
Further, there would be different entrances for different classes during the entry and exit to avoid crowding, he suggested. A separate isolation room in the school and the hostel with infrastructure like oxygen cylinders, trained nurses and doctors on call will be kept handy. In case of emergency, parents would be informed and ambulance would be called. In the hostel, an adequate distance would be maintained while placing beds. Frequent cleaning and sanitisation of commonly touched surfaces like doorknobs and latches inside and outside the classrooms may be carried out, said Panigrahi.
“If we adhere to the SOPs strictly, then school re-opening will surely be a success,” he added.