Are You Ready To Send Your Kids Back To School Yet?

I will send my son to school right this moment, I can’t do any more DIY activities, bake more cakes, plant more saplings, can’t pretend to be a Ninja or save the world while playing PJ Masks. Heaven knows I need a break; we both need a break from each other. And at some level, he will be happy to know that I am not breathing down his unwilling neck telling him to do things a certain way 24X7. The way kids touch the screen to exchange greetings and smile during a virtual class, on seeing friends and teachers, makes it clear how locked up they feel in this lockdown. But as a parent, I need to know that he will be safe when he steps out.

Yes, kids have miraculously evaded getting the dreadful virus, fingers crossed, but does that mean we push them out in the open without knowing how we can treat them if some of them catch it? It is said that kids and young people if they get COVID-19, will have very mild symptoms, but does anybody know what mild means? As parents don’t, we sit up all night even if it is just a toothache or a bruised knee? Also, can you live with it that the kid can be an asymptomatic carrier and pass on the disease to his grandparents who have comorbid conditions? 

The way kids touch the screen to exchange greetings and smile during a virtual class, on seeing friends and teachers, makes it clear how locked up they feel in this lockdown. 

The Union HRD Minister Ramesh Nishank Pokhriyal recently revealed in an interview that schools and colleges will most likely reopen across India from August 15. But are we ready for it? What is the rush I ask to open schools and colleges?

Also Read: Schools, Colleges Will Reopen After August 15. But Is It Safe, Parents Wonder

Can you send a five-year-old to school and say he will not sit next to his best friend on the bus, touch his bag or his new water bottle? The first thing he will do is break into a hug when he sees them after so many months. He will touch and feel every surface in his classroom a place left without saying goodbye. How can you assure that they will follow all social distancing protocols isn’t it expecting too much from the school that they can ensure this with the dismal student-teacher ratio we have in this country?

Also Read: Don’t Want To Send The Kids Back To School? Try Unschooling At Home

Gradually the much-needed Monsoons are going to take over the country, don’t you think our fight with COVID-19 is going to get nastier with that? Monsoon brings with it a host of infections and diseases, the added issues of waterlogging and floods among many. A well-known fact is during the rainy season the risk of exposure to infections is much higher than in any other season. The higher moisture in the air enables harmful microorganisms to thrive. Is it a well thought out idea to resume educational institutes at the peak of the rains?

Gradually the much-needed Monsoons are going to take over the country, don’t you think our fight with COVID-19 is going to get nastier with that?

Early into the lockdown, it was the government only which encouraged educational institutes to go online, now that schools are trying to realign the entire process online why to we need to undo that? A lot of schools are really working hard to make this transition. It has not been easy to get the children accustomed to online learning. From personal experience at the kid’s school I can say, it took the teacher an entire week to set essential class agreements that no one will speak out of turn, touch the device screen, keep themselves on mute and independently sit through sessions without a parent by their side. They are coming to terms with this fast-changing world and they have just begun to give them some time…

  The views expressed are the author's own.