Teachers want Covid test before taking classes

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 19

As the Education Department plans to reopen schools, teachers are apprehensive about taking guidance classes and joining duties till they were not tested for Covid-19.

However, the Education Department apparently has no plans for Covid testing for teachers. Unlike UT, the Haryana Government has asked teachers to download the Aarogya Setu app on their mobile phones and also undergo Covid test before the partial reopening of schools.

Every teacher is hesitant to meet students without a negative Covid report. We don't want to pass on the virus to our students. If this happens, the purpose of closing down schools for the past few months will be defeated. - A Government schoolteacher

A government schoolteacher said: “Every teacher is hesitant to meet students without a negative Covid report. We don’t want to pass on the virus to our students. If this happens, the purpose of closing down schools for the past few months will be defeated.”

Meenal Bhandari, a parent, said: “The Education Department should arrange for Covid testing for teachers before the schools are reopened on a priority basis.”

‘Consent manipulated’

Meanwhile, the Government Teachers’ Union said today that the Education Department had prepared the data of parents’ consent on the basis of an online form and it might not be 100 per cent accurate as a majority of parents of government school students were uneducated and labourers.

As per the data, approximately 50 per cent students in Classes IX to XII agreed to come to government schools, while less than 25 per cent parents agreed in private schools.

“Many parents do not know the meaning of Google forms and these have been filled by students themselves. The Google sheet data totally differs for the students of private schools and Kendriya Vidyalayas in Chandigarh. The reason behind this is that the parents of students from these schools are educated and they have filled the form themselves,” claimed a union member, who is a teacher of a government school.