Parents wary of sending kids to school as cases shoot up

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 23

The sudden spurt in Covid-19 cases being reported from not just government schools but also from leading, reputed private schools of city has created panic among all teachers, students and their parents. As the infection has started catching up teachers and students in schools, parents once again, have become reluctant to send their wards to schools. Even the school managements have started thinking of conducting online exams for various classes looking at present scenario.

The students and parents of two leading schools in the city were relieved as their managements decided to conduct exams online instead of offline as announced earlier. From both these schools, few teachers and students are reported to be Covid positive. Principal of one of these two schools said the study and exams will be continued online. At the same time, she added that it was not necessary that they caught infected from school only. “Life has resumed to normal. Students and teachers move freely and you never know how you get an infection. Since parents raised apprehension, we decided to continue with online studies and exams”, she added.

Harmit Kaur, Principal, Nankana Public School, said at her school, no case has been reported and there were just two exams left for classes IX and XI students. “We will continue with offline exams. For Class III onwards, offline exams will start from March 1 and just two classes will be having exam per day. Proper social distancing will be made while students take the exams,” said Harmit Kaur.

Seeing an increase in the number of cases in schools, the state government has given fresh instructions to schools to appoint nodal officers (teachers), who will ensure that guidelines are properly followed.