Covid-19: No sharing, masks a must, temperature checks in fresh school guidelines in Delhi
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) in its Wednesday meeting also discussed data on Covid-19 cases among students and teachers from all schools in the city and decided not to stop physical classes.
In a bid to limit the spread of Covid-19 in schools, the Delhi government on Friday issued standard operating procedures (SOPs) asking administrations to ensure that students do not share food, books or stationery, even as it stressed that no student, teacher, or guest be allowed inside campus without a temperature check. Schools have been asked to send back students, staff, and guests who have symptoms.
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) in its Wednesday meeting also discussed data on Covid-19 cases among students and teachers from all schools in the city and decided not to stop physical classes.
According to officials, during the meeting, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government advocated for schools to stay open, reasoning that the intermittent closure of schools for the past two years of the pandemic had already caused major learning losses. DDMA then asked the education department to prepare SOPs to prevent the spread of Covid-19 on campuses.
According to the SOPs, which are similar to the guidelines issued to schools when they were permitted to reopen for physical classes with conditions last year, teachers will be required to ask students about Covid-19 symptoms while taking attendance daily and symptomatic students will have to be quarantined.
“If a student or staff member displays any Covid-19 symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle ache, headache, loss of smell or taste, sore throat, diarrhoea, etc. they should be moved away from other people and into an outdoor, well-ventilated quarantine room,” said the SOPs.
Additionally, the heads of schools have been asked to encourage vaccination among students and organise parent-teacher meetings (PTM)/school management committee to discuss Covid protocols. The SOPs also emphasise the need for regular sanitation of school premises, availability of proper arrangements for handwashing on campus and use of all entry/exit gates to avoid crowding.
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Schools in Delhi reopened for physical-only classes from April 1. However, over the past couple of weeks, some schools reported a few Covid-19 cases. Manish Sisodia, who is also the education minister, recently said that schools were at liberty to decide whether to shut a classroom, a wing, or an entire campus in the event of infections.
Director (education) Himanshu Gupta on Thursday evening issued a circular to schools citing the rising positivity rate and expressed his concern about the health of students and staff. “...to prevent [the] spread of Covid-19 infection, a standard operating procedure has been prepared... All heads of schools under [the] directorate of education are directed to adhere to the guidelines in letter and spirit.”
The circular asked the heads of the schools to disseminate the guidelines among students, staff, etc. “Parents should be asked not to send their children to school if anybody at their home displays Covid symptoms.”
Schools have been asked to ensure physical distancing and that students do not assemble or gather near entry or exit gates. “Routine guest visits should be discouraged. Schools should carry out awareness drive among students.”
School administrators in the city said the guidelines are feasible and most campuses have already adopted them.
According to Alka Kapur, principal, Modern Public School, Shalimar Bagh, “We have already adopted all the precautionary measures to ensure the safety of the students and the staff. We have installed sanitiser dispensers all throughout the school for added safety and deployed staff at the gates to ensure that no symptomatic student or staff enters the campus. Besides, mandatory thermal screening is an excellent practice that all schools should follow.”
Meanwhile, health experts agreed the SOPs were a step in the right direction and that there was no need to shut down schools.
Dr JA Jayalal, former head of the Indian Medical Association, said that the spread of Covid-19 can be prevented on campuses by following guidelines and ensuring that students, teachers and staff are vaccinated.
“Schools should monitor the health of the students. A large number of students and staff are already vaccinated. All schools should ensure that they follow guidelines such as thermal scanning before entry, watching out for Covid symptoms, not sharing lunch, and maintaining Covid-appropriate behaviour and wearing of masks strictly,” said Jayalal.
