KOCHI: As the third wave of the pandemic sweeps through the state, private educational institutions are reverting to online classes. This is when the state government itself has deferred the closure of schools and going back to the online mode to January 21. However, why wait for a week? What’s the logic?
These questions are high on the minds of teachers and parents as higher educational institutions like Mar Ivanios College, Rajagiri Engineering College, Thrissur Government Law College, St Teresa’s College etc have stopped offline classes due to Covid infection among students.
“What the state government’s thinking was when it arrived at such a decision is a mystery,” said Kerala State Pradesh Teachers Association (KSPTA) general secretary M Salahudheen. He said, “Will the Covid virus hold back itself for a week? Or is the state government expecting the number of cases to rise much more after January 21? We have no idea.”
According to him, it would have been understandable had the government decided to promptly shut the schools and switch to online mode due to the rapid rise in Covid cases. “As of now, many schools and colleges are closing on their own due to the development of Covid clusters in their institutions,” he said.
“The infection is not spreading among primary and upper primary students. This is because these kids are not coming into contact with the general public. They are being picked up and dropped off either by their parents or the school buses. However, in the case of high school and higher secondary sections, the students come in contact with the general public everyday,” said Salahudheen.
“The same can be said of college students. They mingle with each other and can also be seen visiting malls and other public places after classes,” he said. According to Aji Narayanan, member of the Kerala State Teachers Association, the government might have decided to wait for a week to give the schools time to clear pending work like unfinished lessons or make plans for the conduct of online classes. “It has been just three months since we began the offline classes and shifting back to online mode takes time,” he added.
Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister R Bindu said, “The reason to defer the closure of schools to January 21 might have been to help the schools finish portions anticipating a much larger spike in cases after that.”