Parents divided over closure of schools

Chandigarh, March 11

The outbreak of Covid-19 in the country with 52 positive cases has sparked a debate among parents – whether or not to shut down schools?

While some panicky parents have been demanding the shutting down of schools, some others are convinced that the situation needs to be tackled by maintaining personal hygiene and taking precautionary measures.

Nidhi, a parent said, “Schools should be shut, but the question is for how many days, months or years. It is a matter of maintaining hygiene and taking precautions about cleanliness at personal level.”

Another parent, Shilpi Kambo added, “Exams are going on, schools should take precautions and make children aware of hygiene. Shutting down the schools is no solution. They should have more medical help available at schools. Children should be told about cleaning their hands again and again and maintaining distance while coughing and cold.”

Another parent, Dr Raman Parkash, said, “We can follow proper measures and contain the spread of virus. You cannot keep your kids in house. They need to develop a strong immunity system, and with proper sanitation and hygiene, it is possible to control the spread of this virus.”

However, there are a few parents who differ and do not want to compromise their kids’ safety. “Schools should be shut down immediately as the kids are more prone to catch virus. Even the primary school kids are not trained enough to keep their personal hygiene in the school,” said Dr Amit Narula.

A comic book ‘Kids, Vaayu and Corona: Who wins the fight’ regarding COVID-19 received from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was circulated through email among schools for dissemination of information about COVID-19 among school students.

World health org issues guidelines

• Schools should enforce regular hand washing with safe water and soap, alcohol rub/hand sanitiser or chlorine solution and, at a minimum, daily disinfection and cleaning of school surfaces.
• School authorities should provide water, sanitation and waste management facilities and follow environmental cleaning and decontamination procedures.
• Schools should promote social distancing (a term applied to certain actions that are taken to slow down the spread of a highly contagious disease, including limiting large groups of people coming together.
• Social distancing in schools may include staggering the beginning and end of the school day and cancelling assemblies, sports games and other events that create close-contact conditions.