Corona Conundrum: School managements wary of re-opening

Hyderabad: Though the Central government gave its nod for the re-opening of schools from September 21, the budget schools in the State seems to be not ready due to the prevailing Covid pandemic situation.

"We are not at all ready for reopening of schools given the fact that it may attract several issues such as students may get affected with the contagion prompting the officials to seal the schools, besides a possible backlash from parents and student unions as well as the politicians if any incident takes place on the school premises," said Yadagiri Shekar Rao, President Telangana Recognised Schools Management Association (TRSMA).

Presently, he said, online classes were being held in difficult conditions as the mode was taking a heavy toll on the mental health of both the teacher and the students.We could decide on opening of schools only when Covid-19 infections start falling or a vaccine was made widely available in the market," he clarified.

Terming the Central governments' move as inefficacious approach to deal with the situation, he said, "The government is cheating with the parents while putting the lives of the students into jeopardy."

According to the data available with the school managements union, there are are 10,984 recognized budget schools in the entire Telangana state wherein around 33 lakh students are enrolled.

"Re-opening of schools with fresh load of arrangements would not be possible for the managements as we are already facing financial hardships due to outbreak of corona virus. Moreover, school managements are apprehensive on what action might the government take if a petty lapse found in arrangementsmade by the school managements," said Hameed Akthar Shareef, president Telangana Private Schools Forum (TPSF).

Even the parents, he said,were not willing to send their wards to schools, despite offering fee concessionsby some schools. "Parents are still having apprehensions over the prevailing situation created out of covid-19. Moreover, no fresh fee collection has begun so far.

"Instructions from the government to follow standard operative procedure (SOP) before re-opening the schools is also casting a shadow over private schools as the chaos created out of pandemic already has robbed the managements from whatever wherewithal's they have with them," he bemoaned.