A major challenge that most parents and caregivers are facing in the current situation, is to choose between virtual learning or sending their wards to school for in-person learning in the coming session. It’s been almost a year that students across the globe have stayed away from schools because of the Covid19 pandemic. During this time when most schools run virtually, online learning took over the normal schools worldwide. However, after staying away from physical learning for so long, students now yearn to go back to school to be among their friends and teachers.

With the recent announcement made by the government stating that schools across the country will be opened for the coming session starting April 2021, there is much joy among a section of parents and students, while the rest are still under the dilemma of whether to send their wards back to school at the time of Corona or not. 

Government Directives

In most states of India, the new school year will commence in April 2021. Though most schools across the country have stayed locked since March 2020, they were opened from February 2021 for classes 6 to 12 as per government order. 

Now the government has declared to reopen schools for every student (Nur-XII) from the new session starting from April 2021. 

However, the government has formulated specific guidelines for the schools to follow upon reopening. Some of the directives include:

• Schools are not supposed to hold classes for all grades in one day 
• Attendance could be rotational – may be on alternative days or in every two days
• In case of high enrolment, schools can decide to run in two shifts by reducing the per shift time duration 
• Schools shall not hold any assessment in the first few weeks of reopening and so on

Kid’s Mental State 

The pandemic of covid19 has disturbed the routine life of everyone including students over the last one year. The disrupted routines in many cases have caused disrupted psychosocial surroundings which the young minds are finding hard to comprehend. Of course, the mental state of kids in the current situation is not the same as earlier. 

After staying away from physical classes and mostly at home for over a year, they are now in a different bent of mind. While the joy of returning to normal school amidst their pals and teachers is there, but the scare of the pandemic is also there. Moreover, since a lot of things will be new for students in the coming session like – wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, washing hands frequently, keeping away from coming too close to friends or teachers, etc., – it is going to be a bit different start to a new session this year. 

Of course, all these things put a lot of pressure on the young minds and they are likely to have a lot of questions. For some students, things might seem normal, but many might need special counselling from parents or child counsellors to clear their doubts and to get the courage to start the new session with positivity.  

Responsibilities of parents and schools

 Of course, it is quite difficult for parents to decide on sending their children back to school, especially at a time when the scare of the pandemic is still on. However, in case it is necessary, there are some important things that both parents, as well as the staff at schools, should understand and follow to protect students and staff as well as their families. Among the various safety guidelines that schools can follow include:

• water and hygiene facilities should be well taken care of
• segregate meal time for different groups of students/classes
• set different time for the start and close of school for different classes
• move classes to open spaces or outdoors if possible
• hold classes in shifts to reduce the size of each class

School administration should also take proper care to improve the measures of hygiene. School staff and teachers should be careful about physical distancing and other measures. 

Moreover, teachers and parents have to make the preschool children understand and follow rules at school. Preschool and primary teachers need to make a special effort to help small students adjust to the new ways of learning to protect their health. Local authorities also need to play an important part here is monitoring the situation closely in their respective areas to avoid the spread of the pandemic.  Each one of us needs to follow directives and guidelines for proper hygiene and protection to stay safe in this situation.