Re-opening schools a priority but parents
wary of sending kids back to school just yet
By
: Education | Tulika Tandon | Updated May 09, 2020
Authorities
all over the world are facing the challenge of getting back millions of
students back to classrooms which have been shut for the past five months now
due to the global pandemic conditions. With the situation now coming under
control or the man learning to live with it, the realisation to limit the
educational damage against the risks of fuelling a rise in a number of cases
has come up.
“An
estimated 1.5 billion learners from kindergarten to university level were stuck
in their homes in 195 countries, a number that stood at 1.3 billion as of May
7,” the UN education agency UNESCO said.
"The
decision on when and how to reopen schools is far from simple," UN chief
Audrey Azoulay said.
"But
as numerous students fall behind in their learning, reopening must be a
priority," she added.
With
the deadly coronavirus spreading its fangs across the globe, it is getting even
more challenging for the world to get accustomed to it. Humans being the most
adjustable beings on earth are fighting their way through it impressively. The
Governments took a hasty decision of locking the population inside their houses
as soon as the disease broke out.
Among
the affected categories were mainly students and their parents as their
everyday life came to a halt. Dealing impressively with the situation online
classes were started but now when the authorities have realised that it is
better to live with the situation than to shut ourselves in, the parents and
children have moved into a different zone. Parents worldwide do not wish to
send their kids to schools now that the authorities in some parts have made
arrangements for the same.
It
has been seen that the young people are lesser vulnerable to COVID-19 but many
experts are of the view that they could still be carriers of the disease. This
is a worrying fact for parents, students and teachers. There have been
different views across the globe in this regard.
"Some
are impatient to renew the contact with students, but others are scared,"
said Xavier Toussaint, a secondary school teacher in Waterloo, Belgium.
Maintaining
social distancing in the classrooms would be very challenging as that would
change the entire look of the class. It would also affect the functionality of
the classroom, affecting the interaction of students and teachers or students
with students. In India, there are almost 500 students in one school and the
classrooms are no bigger compared to international schools.
Talking
about Toussaint's school of 800 pupils in Belgium, only 10 classes consisting
of small groups will resume from May 18. It would be an issue for officials too
as they would have to choose every day who to call and who to stop. "The
requirement is a maximum of 10 per class, with four square metres (43 square
feet) of space per student, plus eight square metres for the teacher," he
said.
Similarly
in France, continual hand-washing is being promoted throughout the day. The
schools have come up with rules such as no group play at recess, one-way
hallways to restrict acts of students mingling, and mandatory face masks for
all.
Parents
have also been asked to take their children's temperature every morning as the
country is about to begin a staggered opening in the coming week. Paris schools
will accommodate just 15 per cent of students as informed by authorities.
Italy
and Spain, Bulgaria, Ireland, Portugal, Tunisia, and the state of New York have
called off the classes till September.
The
conditions are different though in Wuhan, where the outbreak erupted. Here the
students began returning to classes this week, wearing masks and walking
through thermal scanners as precautionary measures.
Even
the developed nations believe that distance learning cannot compensate for
physical learning and thus classes are a necessity. "Students are happy to
be back and are following the rules to stay in small groups and limit contacts.
And they've become expert hand-washers," said a principal of an Oslo
school in Norway.
