After the April-May nightmare, is a third wave of Covid-19 coming? There is perhaps not a single family who may not have lost a dear one – be it a relative or a friend – to the second wave. Everyone wants to know if the virus would rear its head again, more so if it would hit the children as is being feared by experts and commoners alike. There are a variety of dates coming, some say it will hit in September, some October and others guess, maybe around Diwali.
Vibes of India reporters reviewed Gujarat’s preparedness for a third wave, to check how do the young and their parents feel with schools opening partly, to know how the people think about the upcoming festivals, above all, is the State Government ready this time.
In the first of a three-part series, Ashvita Singh writes about the children and their schools:
The Covid-19 curve seems to be flattening. Life seems to be limping back to normal. After allowing physical classes for secondary schools to resume, the Gujarat Government has taken one more step to permit reopening offline teaching for standard 6 to 8 students from September 2, albeit with 50% attendance.
But unlike 2020 when the schools, the teachers, the parents and the students alike wanted physical classes to start in a hurry, they all are an anxious lot and a section of them even feels the government could have waited for the vaccine for children to come before opening any more classes.
Their concerns range from the increased workload to difficulty in ensuring Covid-appropriate behaviour among children so young is on the minds of the faculty that would be closely associated with kids in the coming days.
“It would be difficult for teachers to ensure kids maintain physical distancing at all times. While our school infrastructure is good, as and when more students join physical classrooms, the load on teachers would increase, in terms of ensuring Covid-appropriate behaviour,” Hitesh Aswani, 31, a teacher at Anand Niketan School, says.
From his experience with class 9 to 12 students, Aswani told VoI that only a few of the 50% of permitted kids attend the offline lectures, with many opting for online classes after physically attending the school for a day or two. “I am not sure if this also happens with class 6-8 students,” he said.
Ashwin Patel, a parent of a Class VIII student of the same school, said he would not send his child for offline classes as long as the Covid fear looms large or until the child is vaccinated. “It is a straight no from me. Apart from Covid, viral infections are also on rise and I don’t want to risk the health of my child. We will continue with online education,” he said.
Aswani and Patel’s views are no different from many parents and teachers across a cross-section of schools in Ahmedabad or even other major cities.
There is another concern. The teachers and school authorities are worried about managing online and offline education simultaneously. “In private schools, the onus is on the school authorities to invest in equipment such as tripod and phones with good cameras and speakers to ensure that both online and offline students get the lessons. Taking separate classes is not feasible,” Vishal Patel (29), Director of Higher Secondary Department at Nishan School, says.
While Patel agrees that schools need to re-open, he believes the government authorities could have waited a little longer given that a vaccine would soon be made available for adolescents. Last week, the country’s drug regulator gave emergency use authorisation to ZyCov-D, the DNA-based vaccine developed by Zydus Cadila, for those in the 12-18 age group, besides the adult population.
While announcing the re-opening of schools for Classes 6-8, the government has stated that the vaccination of teachers and non-teaching staff and students over the age of 18 would be done on priority, and the State would even set up vaccination camps on school and college campuses.
Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, in his announcement, said the SOPs announced in July for Classes 9-12 would also apply to Classes 6-8. The guidelines include physical distancing, frequent sanitisation of premises and checking temperature of each kid before they enter the classrooms, among others. Some students who are already attending offline classes said these guidelines were being initially followed by the schools but the school authorities became lax as time went by.
Harvik Desai (17), a class XII student of a private school in Satellite area, said the Covid-appropriate behaviour mentioned in SOP released by the State Government prior to the re-opening was being followed by his school in name only.
“The school’s staff fill the sanitiser bottle with water to cut costs. There is a break of 20 minutes between each lecture and students are allowed to move out. That is when the masks come down and students mingle with one another. Making masks compulsory during lectures is necessary, but what about those 20 minutes when there is no one to supervise and ensure Covid-appropriate behaviour is being followed at all times,” asks Harvik’s father, Ishwar Desai.
An architecture student (name withheld on request from parents) from LJ School of Architecture was worried that the college was conducting offline exams despite many students reporting sick to the examination hall.
“The examination centre is congested and we are told to get our own sanitisers. One of the classmates is so sick that she appears for the exams with her mother waiting outside on the stairs, sometimes taking her to the hospital for treatment. She says she does not want to sit for remedial exams as it would show ‘fail’ on her first marksheet,” the student told VoI.
The student’s other classmate and her friend also caught cold and cough while appearing for the second paper. “It might be viral infection, I don’t know. I feel weak, but don’t want to lose on appearing for exams as it might look bad on my original marksheet. Remedial examinations don’t look good on your resume,” the classmate told VoI.
The institute’s director, Himanshu Thakker, however, told VoI that the student’s complaints were “untrue” and that the college was following all Covid-appropriate behaviour at the examination centres.
