The government decision to reopen schools from November 1 onwards has evoked mixed reactions among parents in the city.
They have been contacting the school authorities to share their concerns and clear their doubts on how their children would be able to resume their offline sessions safely amidst the pandemic concerns. A section of the managements of unaided schools had elicited response of parents online on school reopening. Many parents have not been able to take a decision on whether to send their children to schools and seem to be zeroing in on a wait-and-watch approach, according to the initial feedback from managements.
“Parents are mostly concerned about the safety of their children and wanted to know the measures being taken to ensure a risk-free atmosphere while resuming classes in the physical mode. We had already started making efforts to ease their anxieties by deciding to come up with a School Support Document,” said Indira Rajan, chief patron of the Council of CBSE Schools Kerala.
The initial feedback received by schools showed that several parents have not been able to decide owing to the lack of clarity on the availability of school buses. The majority of them were not in a position to drop and pick up their children in their vehicles as they had to report for work or for other practical reasons.
“It would be really difficult to operate the bus services as the regulations suggest that only one child could be accommodated in a seat. With only 50% of the students turning up daily, the plying of school buses would not be feasible. Some managements had informed that they were willing to offer the service, if the parents were able to meet the expenses considering the fact that fuel prices had gone over the roof,” said T.P.M. Ibrahim Khan, president of the Kerala CBSE School Managements’ Association.
A section of the parents had informed the school authorities that they were ready to send their children from the first day of reopening. They have cited the need for children to go back to the physical mode of learning while pointing out the shortcomings in the online mode of teaching.
