76% parents don’t want to send kids to school till Covid cases drop to zero: Survey

Even as several states like Telangana and Bihar have decided to reopen education institutes starting July 1, a survey of over 19,000 parents from across the country, shows how nearly 76% respondents are not ready to send their children to school unless Covid-19 cases in their districts go down to zero, or all children are vaccinated

Even as several states like Telangana and Bihar have decided to reopen education institutes starting July 1, a survey of over 19,000 parents from across the country, shows how nearly 76% respondents are not ready to send their children to school unless Covid-19 cases in their districts go down to zero, or all children are vaccinated. Interestingly, over 65% respondents have approved that their children receive the Covid-19 vaccine if it is made available by September 2021.

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“We conducted six separate surveys this year. In January, nearly 69% parents were ready to send their wards to school by April 2021 but this number fell to a mere 20% in the June survey. Given the lack of online education in many rural parts of the country, the fatigue of online classes, the risk of Covid spread and the possibility of a third wave, we conducted this survey to understand the opinion of parents on sending their children to school,” highlighted the survey report made public by LocalCircles, a community social media platform enabling citizens and small businesses to escalate issues for policy enforcement and interventions.

The survey received more than 19,000 responses from parents located in 293 districts of the country.

Around 48% parents were from Tier 1 districts, 29% from Tier 2 districts and 22% from Tier 3, Tier 4 and rural districts of India. Of the 19,000 respondents who participated in this survey, a little over 2,000 parents belong to Maharashtra. The survey report highlighted how nearly 70% parents in Maharashtra were not comfortable with the idea of sending their children to school unless Covid cases go down to zero. Similarly, 58% parents approved of vaccinating their wards while 25% felt they would consider this move based on appropriate data/findings.

“Majority parents are not ready to risk the lives of their children, especially at a time when we are hearing of new variants of Covid and the fact that more children contracted the virus in the second wave. We have been requesting the government to conduct vaccination drives at least for the Class 8 to 12 students for the time being, if not for the younger children,” said Anubha Srivastav Sahai, president of India Wide Parent Association (IWPA).

She added that even in January 2021, when the state government decided to reopen schools in some districts, many parents chose not to send their children to school despite dwindling cases. “Instead of focusing on reopening schools, the government should focus on the vaccination drive at present and to ensure that all children have internet facilities so no one misses out on education,” she added.

While the state of Maharashtra has not yet clarified its stand on school/college reopening, several other states have announced similar decisions. Both Bihar and Telangana governments have decided to reopen schools and colleges from July 1, whereas the Uttar Pradesh government has asked teachers to start attending schools physically and conduct online lectures from their schools starting July 1.

Dr Samir Dalwai, developmental and behavioural paediatrician said the fear among parents is more about the fact that reopening of schools will automatically mean a large number of people sharing the same space. “We cannot trust children to keep masks on or follow social distancing rules,” said Dalwai. He added that there’s also a group of parents who feel reopening of schools will calm the anxiety among children, who have been locked up at home with their families for over a year now. “There has been an increase in the number of children seeking counselling because their interactions are limited to online classes. However, the fear of children contracting the virus in schools is fear and the majority of parents are not open to sending their children to schools,” he added.