Experts suggest safety guidelines for schools to follow once lockdown ends

Some of the suggested measures include having one student per bench with 6 feet distance between two students, rotational online and offline classes for students and splitting the class into two and conducting double shifts to ensure that all students don’t have to come at the same time.

In order to ensure the safety and well-being of students once schools open, a group of educationists from the country have come up with a list of suggestions and recommendations that schools could adhere to once the lockdown ends.

Drafted by SLN global network, a group which consists of school heads, academicians and education experts, the suggestions include measures to be taken before and after schools reopen. In addition to basic precautions like sanitisation of the school campus, temperature checks of staff and avoiding outside visitors in schools, the document also lists out recommendations on classroom functioning.

Some of the suggested measures include having one student per bench with 6 feet distance between two students, rotational online and offline classes for students and splitting the class into two and conducting double shifts to ensure that all students don’t have to come at the same time. The document also suggests the formation of a core committee consisting of the schools heads and medical professionals to conduct safety audits of campuses, recommend home quarantine of students if required and to prepare for any kind of health emergencies.

“The anxiety level among the parents post the Covid19 Lockdown might remain high, till a vaccine is found. Hence schools have to start incorporating changes in their campus and innovate structures which enable them to function with a blended learning education model (school + online+ home), if they wish to retain the trust of parents when it comes to being a safe campus. These conversations have started taking place elsewhere in the world and in India we wanted to initiate them. These are suggestions (not guidelines) as context will vary from school to school,” said Francis Joseph,co-founder, SLN Global Network.

With the lockdown being postponed until May 3, most CBSE and ICSE schools have already started their new academic years online while children from the state board are also being sent online study material.