With the threat of Omicron variant on the horizon, schools are likely to see a drop in students attending in-person classes, according to the latest findings of a nationwide survey conducted by LocalCircles.
In a matter of a week, over 25 countries have reported the presence of Omicron variant, first found in South Africa, with scientists confirming that it is more transmissible than the Delta variant and that it could evade vaccines up to some extent. While no cases of Omicron have been sequenced in India yet, over two dozen countries, including UK and the Netherlands have reported the variant within a week. India too has postponed the resumption of international commercial flights from December 15 and has put in place stringent testing, tracking and tracing guidelines for international passengers coming into India. Amongst all this, the big question for many parents s is whether it is still safe to send their children to school.
The survey, which received 15,875 responses from parents residing in 308 districts of India, finds that schools in India are likely to see a 14% drop in students attending in-person classes immediately with more students dropping out from in-person classes as Omicron cases are reported in India. Point to note: Doctors from South Africa have reported a higher number of cases of Omicron in the under 25 population.
As per the survey, 58% of parents will be sending their children for in-person classes till this week. The remaining 32% are mostly with younger children and for about 10% of parents, schools that their children go to have not resumed in-person classes yet.
Furthermore, the report added, of the 58% of parents that were sending children to school, 14% will stop doing so post the threat of Omicron. While no cases of Omicron have been sequenced in India yet, once the first case is reported in India, another 5% of parents are likely to stop sending children to school and once multiple cases are reported another 5% are likely to do so, leaving only 34% of parents still sending children to school.
Another 10% of parents will take the call of stopping in-person school for their children only when Omicron case is detected in their district and once several cases are detected in their district almost all parents are likely to stop sending children. Chances are, before that happens, schools would be closed by State Governments and District Magistrates. In one of the first examples, Mumbai and Pune on Monday, postponed the resumption of classes for children till class 7, by two weeks from December 1 to 15 in light of Omicron. Schools in Haryana which were set to reopen on December 1, will continue to remain shut in the wake of the new variant. The state government has withdrawn the decision to reopen physical classes for the time being and online classes will be conducted in the meantime.
The key for the safe operations of schools, according to global epidemiologists, depends on six factors including (a) vaccination of every staff member, (b) good outside air ventilation in classrooms including air purifiers in each class, (c) mandatory masking of KN95 or N95 (no cloth or surgical mask), (d) seating with social distancing, (e) no big Indoor gatherings, and (f) Random antigen testing of staff and students.
School administrators should implement daily declarations by parents about the health of the child and all the family members along with thermal checks for all at the school entry. At this point, keeping schools open but with high levels of caution is the right approach.
LocalCircles will share the findings of this survey with key stakeholders in the Central Government and Chief Secretaries of all states so inputs of parents can be considered as they finalise their school protocols in light of the threat of the new Omicron variant.
Schools have been open since August-September in most states but recently clusters of COVID cases have been reported in Telangana and Karnataka, with some parents in Hyderabad and Bangalore demanding a move back to online classes. In this regard the Kranataka government recently issued an advisory, stating that all social and cultural events, including conferences, seminars, academic events, etc. in educational institutions must be postponed for two months, while all students in medical and paramedical and other such educational institutions must be screened daily for any COVID-19 symptoms. “..the symptomatic should be tested and treated as per the guidelines already issued," read the advisory.
