Delhi-NCR schools reopen amid resurgent Covid-19 fears

Schools in Delhi NCR reopened this week to mixed reactions amidst two-pronged fears of air pollution and a new variant of the coronavirus.

 Most schools prepared for the reopening through stringent social distancing measures and full vaccination for staff. Given that online learning -—with all its successes and failures — is not a substitute for physical classes, principals across Delhi unanimously espoused for school reopening with strict social distancing.

 “After a long time, our campus reverberated with laughter, joyful banter and sounds of tapping toes withs students describing how ecstatic they were at the prospects of being back to physical classes. Even the parents were happy to see that the school was welcoming students heartily with all Covid protocols in place,” said Nita Arora, Principal, Sri Venkateshwar International School, Sector -18, Dwarka. She also added that the school was making buses available on combined routes on all week days in order to make it easy for students to attend school.

In other parts of NCR too, students were excited to return to school but a few were being guided by the concerns and apprehensions of their parents, according to Nidhi Tiwari, principal, Ridge Valley School, Gurugram, “Students across all age groups are excited to meet their peers and teachers. Families where both parents are working and have joined offices physically are especially ready to send kids to schools. I feel it’s high time that children joined physical classes as it is impacting the social emotional well-being and has created a lot of learning gaps,” she added.

Most principals are of the view that online classes cannot be a long-term solution and physical classes must be resumed sooner or later. However, at the moment, parental anxieties about safety remain a concern that must be tackled. In their interactions with parents, principals found that while the former were aware of the limitations of digital warning, they still feel that their wards’ safety and health concerns were of prime concern.

“Every government, private and public schools is abiding by the SOPs issued by the directorate of education. All the teaching as well as subordinate staff has been vaccinated. Students have faced the brunt of school closure induced by the pandemic,” explained Dr. Deepak Kumar Sinha, Principal, Jagran Public School, Sector-47, Noida. “We are conducting hybrid classes for the junior and middle school children while senior students are attending classes regularly since the first day of school reopening. Given our hybrid model of teaching, parents are also happy as they find that their child is back to a disciplined schedule and is taking interest in studies because of the physical proximity.”

As most establishments were returning to normalcy in varying capacities, a new strain of the coronavirus called omicron threatens to bring all activities to a standstill once again. Given that new variants may keep emerging, the element of uncertainty and the disruption caused in the last academic year has brought to the forefront a need for agile adaptability. Most leaders in the education domain are of the belief that no solution will be permanent and schools must be prepared to respond to whatever challenge the pandemic may throw at them. While most schools are enforcing social distancing measures and vaccination for staff, opening up vaccination for children could be a potential game-changer.

 “I personally believe that starting all over again is a blessing in disguise because when you restart, you get another chance to make things right and better. As we have progressed towards regaining normalcy, the schools have reopened with all the safety COVID protocols in place which have been duly conveyed to the parents, instilling confidence in them about the safe environment for their ward to re-join the school. Some want to err on the side of caution by still preferring the online mode of learning as they eagerly await the announcement of the vaccination programme for children,” explained Swarnima Luthra, Principal, ASN Senior Secondary School Mayur Vihar.

Even as protocols remain in place, the arrival of a new variant threatens to bring the world to its knees once again. Until then, all eyes remain on how students react to this change in their environment as they retrace their steps back to school in a pandemic-altered world.

This article was originally published in HT Education.