Delhi schools put in place safety measures, say ready for guidance visits by students

According to the Unlock 4 guidelines issued by the ministry of home affairs on August 30, schools will continue to remain closed till September 30.

A day after the Union ministry of health and family welfare issued detailed guidelines for “partial reopening” of schools for students of classes 9 to 12 on a voluntary basis from September 21 to seek academic guidance, principals of several private and government schools in Delhi said they are ready to receive students on their campuses after a gap of around six months.

A senior official in Delhi government’s education department said there is no decision on reopening of schools or holding classes. (PTI)

According to the Unlock 4 guidelines issued by the ministry of home affairs on August 30, schools will continue to remain closed till September 30. At the same time, it stated, “Students of class 9 to 12 may be permitted to visit their schools, in areas outside the containment zones only, on a voluntary basis, for taking guidance from their teachers. This will be subject to written consent from their parents/guardians and will be permitted with effect from September 21, 2020, for which SoPs will be issued by the ministry of health and family welfare.”

The health ministry on Tuesday issued the standard operating procedures (SoPs) which include maintaining a physical distance of six feet, sanitisation of school premises with 1% sodium hypochlorite solution, 50% strength of teachers and staff members at a time, mandatory use of face masks, utilisation of open spaces for the teacher-student interaction and prohibition of sports and other assemblies, among others.

A senior official in Delhi government’s education department said there is no decision on reopening of schools or holding classes. “The Delhi government is still evaluating the situation. We are also discussing with the stakeholders if it will be feasible for us to partially reopen the schools in Delhi as per the Centre’s Unlock 4 guidelines. The government will soon take a decision on this,” said the official.

Terming the SoPs “strict as they meant to be”, Ashok Pandey, director of Ahlcon Schools said, “This partial return of students will be like testing waters for opening schools. We will call students who are willing to visit the school in small groups in a staggered way. We are expecting that students of class 12 might visit seeking help in practicals. The school is prepared in case they want to come.”

Principals said they will also have to prepare a separate time table since teachers will also be taking online classes simultaneously. “We will have to make sure that a subject teacher is available at the school for the students who want to visit the campus to take up their queries and doubts. We will also have to procure masks, sanitisers, gloves and thermal scanners. There will be staggered timing for arrival and departure for students at the campus and disinfection of the building on a regular basis,” said Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu Public School in Rohini.

Many schools, including Modern Public School in Shalimar Bagh, have also installed contactless water taps and sanitiser dispensers at their campus for the safety of the students. “We have also installed cameras in the classes. So, whatever the teacher will be teaching to the students who visit the schools to clear doubts, other students can also watch sitting at home,” said school principal Alka Kapur.

Even though the Centre has permitted schools to run transport facilities if required, several principals said that they might avoid it as of now. Tania Joshi, principal of Indian School, said, “Many schools don’t have their own vehicles and they run vehicles on contract. We can’t control children on the buses. We will convince parents to drop and pick the kids to the school.”

Officials at government schools said students will benefit if they start visiting their teachers on regularly. AK Jha, head of Sarvodaya Co-ed Vidyalaya in Rohini, said, “Students of government schools have limited access to smartphone with sufficient data and if they come to school our teachers can provide them with proper guidance so that they can bridge the learning gap. For the safety of students, every precaution and social distancing method will be followed. Students will be made aware of how to live with coronavirus in the first week then the teaching will go on.”

Meanwhile, several teachers said that parents should not hold them responsible in case anything goes wrong. Alok K Mishra, a mentor teacher at government boys’ senior secondary school in Mangolpur Khurd, said, “Schools should be partially reopened with all the precautions. It’s important both from the perspective of education and for the mental and social health of students. But there will always be a possibility of infection amid a pandemic. If any student gets infected the teachers should not be held responsible for it.”