Schools opaque about safety steps, complain parents

Some private institutions’ protocol communication has left guardians worried

A city school being sanitised: File Picture

Jhinuk Mazumdar   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |   11.02.21: Some private schools are sending letters to parents seeking their consent for their child’s return to the campus but allegedly without spelling out the possible alternatives if they decide against in-person attendance.

Scores of parents across the city complained that schools were expecting them to allow children to attend in-person classes but have been opaque about steps they were taking to get students back on the campus.

The consent is being sought for writing exams and attending classes on campus, but a section of parents is peeved at what they called a “Hobson’s choice”.

There are a few exceptions. At least two schools — South Point High School and The Heritage School — have sent a detailed note to parents stating that the number of pupils will be limited to one third of the original strength and a maximum of two to three students will be allowed in the toilet at a time.

Parents have specific questions that some schools do not seem to have an answer to:

• Use of toilets: How often will the toilets be cleaned and how many children will be allowed at a time?

• Mask etiquette: Children are expected to wear masks but is it practical to wear a mask for almost six hours at a stretch?

• Break time: Who will monitor students during breaks?

• Distancing in laboratories: Will students have to share equipment in labs?

• In between periods: Who will look after the children between two periods, when there is no teacher in the room?

• Sanitisation routine: How often will door knobs, classrooms, lifts and railings will be sanitised?

The lack of clarity on the part of schools is making many parents worried or indecisive about sending their children to the campus.

Many said they had given consent because their children would other-wise be marked “absent” in an examination.

The principal of a south Calcutta school said: “No punitive action will be taken and we are not compelling parents to send children to school. But if they cannot appear in an examination, we will have to mark them absent.”

What is baffling parents is that some of the decisions taken by schools are not entirely based on science.

A school has asked students to turn up only if they test negative for Covid-19 and several others are considering issuing such a directive. Another school has asked parents to sign a health declaration form daily.

Public health experts have said a negative Covid test did not mean a student would not contract Covid later.

“A declaration is a bureaucratic exercise. One could come in contact with an asymptomatic Covid patient and not know about it. It is not possible for anyone to give a declaration,” said Sanjib Bandyopadhyay, a public health expert associated with the Beleghata ID hospital.

The schools in their rush to reopen are ignoring questions and apprehensions that parents have in sending their children to the campus.

Some schools have also received emails from parents saying they had protected their children for 10 months and are wary of exposing them to the risk of catching the virus.

Parents have said that it is “their right” to know what precautions schools are taking and it is not enough for schools to just say they are “following Covid protocols”.

“Schools have to be much more transparent in their communication with parents. They will have to inform the parents how many times they are cleaning the toilets, how many times they are sanitising the building and what protocols they are following. It has to be a regular communication,” said public health expert Bandyopadhyay.