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829 teachers, 575 students test Covid +ve after schools reopen in Andhra
In the first phase, the government has thrown open schools for Classes 9 and 10 on alternate days, but only for half-a-day. According to official figures, 98.84% of the schools were opened with 87.78% of teachers turning up to take the classes.
The reopening of government schools in Andhra Pradesh from Monday has triggered a panic wave among both teachers and students, with the surfacing of Covid-19 cases in several places across the state.
In the first phase, the government has thrown open schools for Classes 9 and 10 on alternate days, but only for half-a-day. According to official figures, 98.84% of the schools were opened with 87.78% of teachers turning up to take the classes.
However, the attendance of students was not up to the expectations. Only 39.62% of students of Class 9 and 43.65% of students of Class 10 attended school in the first three days.
What caused worry for the teachers and students is the surfacing of Covid-19 cases among teachers and students, when the health department officials conducted tests on them soon after the opening of classes, as per the instructions of the government.
According to School Education Department officials, out of 1,89,148 teachers who turned up at the schools in the last three days, tests were conducted on 70,790 teachers till now and 829 tested positive for Covid-19.
Similarly, tests were conducted on 95,763 students of Class 9 and 10, out of 3,92,000 students who attended the classes in the last three days. Out of them, 575 students tested positive.
“This is not a very alarming number and most of them are asymptomatic. They were immediately sent to quarantine as per the health protocol and their condition is being monitored regularly,” School Education Commissioner V Chinna Veerabhadrudu told Hindustan Times.
He said the highest number of cases surfaced in West Godavari district, where 262 out of 41,000 teachers tested positive. In Visakhapatnam, 4,527 teachers underwent testing and out of them 52 tested positive on Wednesday, he said.
Similar cases of several teachers and students contracting coronavirus were reported from Guntur, Chittoor, Nellore and East Godavari districts.
“There is nothing to panic for the teachers and students, as the percentage of the positive cases is well below the normal, compared to statewide positive cases. Since all precautions are being taken by the department, we are confident the number of positive cases will come down gradually,” Veerabhadrudu said.
He said the decision to reopen the schools was taken keeping in view the loss of more than four months this academic year and the poor students. “While the private schools have been conducting at least online classes, we wanted to see that the students in government schools, who are mostly from poorer sections, should not lag behind,” the commissioner said.
However, the surfacing of Covid-19 cases on reopening of schools has caused panic among teachers. “There are no precautionary measures in many schools – like provision of sanitisers in every class, sufficient water to wash hands periodically and proper hygiene in kitchens where mid-day meals are cooked and served. No money was released to the schools to take these measures,” said Shaik Sabjee, president of United Teachers’ Federation.
He said though the schools were open to students once in two days and classes were run only for half-a-day, teachers were asked to come regularly. “There is every possibility of teachers contracting the virus during travel to schools and interacting with students and parents,” Sabjee said.
He said the situation would be worse if the upper primary and primary schools were reopened from November 23 and December 14, respectively, because the students in that age group were more vulnerable.
Telugu Desam Party lawmaker Anagani Satyaprasad on Thursday wrote to chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to close down the reopened schools immediately in the wake of surfacing of several Covid-19 cases among teachers and students. Instead, the government could continue the online teaching for students, as was being done in various other states.
CPI state secretary P Ramakrishna also demanded that the government rethink on continuing the schools in the wake of pandemic. “Especially in the interior areas and tribal areas, it is very difficult to monitor the health conditions of students and teachers,” he pointed out.
