Students of the higher classes return to school on October 18 (tomorrow). Some of them will be entering the school portals after 19 long months of being confined to their homes with classes having been held entirely online since March last year, except for students who had to answer the Class X and Class XII Board exams. It will be a totally new experience for many as this, though it will be the same school and they will have the same classmates, in many respects much of it will not be the same. For one they will be wearing face masks during school hours, will have temperature checks, maintain physical distancing, regularly sanitise hands, none of which was a practice earlier, but is now an accepted way of life.
The government has also left it to the heads of institutions and managements to decide on the manner in which classes will be held. This decision will depend on the available infrastructure and pandemic conditions in the local area where the school is situated. Only vaccinated staff (teaching & non-teaching staff) will be allowed in the school premises and those who cannot produce vaccination certificates, will be allowed entry only after producing a negative report of RT-PCR test every week. Children suffering from chronic diseases have to consult their physicians before joining the schools. How the classes function once students get back to school will be revealed in the week ahead.
After the State expert committee cleared classes for children, the task force did the same and though it is now students from the higher classes that are going back to school, the lower classes may also soon be allowed to reopen their doors for students. With the vaccine having been cleared for children from the age of two to 18, it is possible that even the primary school students will soon be back in their classrooms, though this will also depend on how parents respond to physical classes for the younger ones. So, though students go back to school, there will be no functions and assemblies.
The COVID case load has shown a decline not just in Goa but across the nation, an indication that the potency of the virus has declined though it is still circulating. Yet, despite the drop in COVID-19 cases and the test positivity rate remaining around and below 2.5 per cent for the last few weeks, the State is not taking the risk of opening schools for all classes or even for all students at the same time. Though secondary and higher secondary schools in Goa will reopen in physical mode they have been permitted to follow a hybrid mode of teaching where online classes will continue simultaneously with the offline classes, at least for the initial period and students will decide whether to attend classes or stay home and continue with online learning.
Recently, UNICEF had found via a study that in India, 80 per cent of the children aged 14-18 years had reported lower levels of learning than when physically at school. Goa, in particular, has had its online teaching disrupted due to internet connectivity issues and restarting physical classes will clear this hurdle. It is, however, not the first of the States to start physical classes since the pandemic. Quite a few others have already done so and Goa can possibly learn from them on how they have managed. Precautions, however, will have to be taken to keep the staff and students safe. At the first signs of any COVID-19 cases, the schools will have to increase their precautions and also surveillance so that it does not spread. While reopening schools may be welcomed by students, it is not going to be easy for the managements of the institutions.
