AP must tweak school reopening policy
With Covid-19 cases showing a downward trend, schools and intermediate colleges are all set to reopen today in Andhra Pradesh, and the government sounds confident that the virus will not pose a grave danger to students. It is not just Andhra, in fact, several other states such as Haryana, Punjab, Himachal and Tamil Nadu among others have either opted to reopen or are about to within a few weeks. Nonetheless, what sets apart Andhra is its bold decision to go in for offline classes from Class I to inter second year. Though the government has issued guidelines, parents are worried for a good reason.
The Covid-19 situation in Andhra is certainly under control but the state is still logging anywhere between 1,500 and 2,000 cases a day, with East Godavari district being a particular cause of concern with a positivity rate hovering around 7%. The government has clarified that schools will reopen only in areas where the transmission rate is less than 10% and in the standard operating procedures, it has made it clear that Covid protocols would be followed. It has also given the option of conducting classes on alternate days for schools that do not have the capacity to accommodate all the students while observing Covid norms. Further, the government claims 95% of the teachers have been vaccinated and the rest too will be covered by today.
But here is the catch. The government has directed that no online classes be conducted from today onwards while giving the option of not attending school to students! It is purely voluntary. Similarly, students whose parents/grandparents have comorbidities are advised to stay home. The same goes for students with comorbidities. The logical question is, how are such students expected to keep up with the rest? We do not say offline classes should not be conducted. But it will help students if the same classes are relayed online. Besides, the government ought to have conducted classes on a trial basis for a few batches before throwing open the school gates for all. In the interests of the students, the government would be well advised to tweak its policy.