Vijayawada: Parents still hesitant to send wards to schools

Vijayawada: Though the impact of Covid pandemic is not visible at workplaces and high schools for the past few months, the parents of the primary school students are still in dilemma whether to send their wards to the schools or not.

The prime concern is little children have generally less resistance power and immunity and could face health problems, if infected with the coronavirus. In this backdrop, not all parents are ready to send their children to the schools.

On the first day of the reopening of primary schools on Monday, the attendance not crossed even 50 per cent in many schools, particularly the budget schools, local convents and the government schools in the city.

The school managements are giving assurance to the parents on maintaining physical distance and arranging sanitisers for the students and staff. But many parents are not convinced to send their little children. Due to socio and economic reasons, majority families in society have one or two children. So, most parents are worrying about the safety of their kids. As per the schedule, schools reopen in June every year. But this academic year, primary schools did not open till January 31, 2021. The government has announced that primary schools would be reopened on February 1. But many parents are not willing to send their children to the primary schools.

In SV Reddy Municipal corporation high school, Krishna Lanka, the attendance was low on Monday. Children, who attended the classes joyfully spent with their old friends and classmates.

The school staff has arranged sanitisers and children wore the masks. The teachers hope the attendance will gradually increase in the coming days.

Similarly, the turnout was low at the Grace English medium school in New RR Pet. School principal Daya Grace said the school is taking consent letter from the parents and the school is not putting pressure on the parents to send their children. Children, who attended to the classes said they would continue to attend as it is very happy to come back to school after the long gap of many months.

At Siddhartha school in Old RR pet little children attended the classes wearing masks and the teachers taken care to maintain physical distance. V Adinarayana Rao, principal of the school said the school management is taking measures to instil confidence among the parents and the staff on following the Covid protocol. He said use of masks is must in the school for both students and the teachers.

Fourth class students Vijayalakshmi Durga Prasad, Mohan and Raju joyfully said they were bored at the home and now will attend the school happily.