Schools in India are gradually reopening as the epidemiological situation in the country improves.
Recall that schools across India have been temporarily closed since March last year due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
Thus, since October 4, students in the state of Maharashtra have officially returned to school – classes have resumed for students in grades 8-12 in urban areas and for students in grades 5-12 in rural areas.
Mumbai, the state’s administrative center, is home to more than 2,500 high schools. To avoid cases of concentrated outbreaks of infection, only half of the students are allowed on campus each day for classes.
“Many parents don’t want their children to go to school because they still worry about the safety of their children in school. We are off to a rough start. To alleviate the anxiety, we are only allowing half of our students to come to school each day. We hope that this will help us keep the learning process going on the one hand, and protect the children from the coronavirus on the other,” said Virendraprasad Dwivedi, principal of Mumbai High School.
Despite the continuing risk of coronavirus infection, many parents welcome the opening of the schools.
“All the parents and students are very happy because schools have reopened after a break of a year and a half. It’s very important for the children to resume school,” said Mukesh Kumar Jha, the father of one of the students.
“We are still very concerned about the safety of the children because the pandemic is not over yet. Teachers and students are still taking risks. But the children’s education classes should not be postponed,” believes Meenu Umesh Singh, the mother of another student.
In the past three months, India has seen a significant slowdown in the rate of new COVID-19 infections. The country’s Ministry of Health said Oct. 4 that 70% of the vaccine-eligible population has received the first dose of the vaccine and that 25% of Indian adults have completed the full course of vaccination.
According to the government on October 4 there were 20,799 new cases of COVID-19 infection and 180 deaths from the disease during the past 24 hours in India. The total number of people infected with coronavirus in the country reached 33 834 702, of whom 448 997 people died.