City schools stick to classroom mode despite rise in student sick leaves

Rithu Dravid |NT
Bengaluru

While the Covid-19 pandemic kept the children away from schools for long periods, the reopening of schools and the ongoing wet spell have led to a rise in cases of high fever, flu like symptoms, respiratory issues and diarrhoea, leaving a few desks vacant in classrooms on a daily basis. There has also been a steady rise in the number of paediatric Covid cases, and doctors have called for a universal screening of school children.

Dr Mallesh, Head of Department, Vani Vilas hospital, Bangaluru Medical Council and Research Institute said, “ There has been an increase in the number of dengue-like illness and pneumonia cases among children. The admissions to the inpatient and outpatient wings at the hospital have significantly gone up. Dengue-like cases especially are on the rise as it is the rainy season and we don’t know if its post-pandemic symptoms or a natural occurrence.

The number of children visiting the hospital on an average is 140 to 150 on a daily basis,” he said. According to parents and doctors, the rainy season has made the situation worse, not knowing if one has been affected with Covid or a viral borne infection.

In spite of the rise in cases, the school managements say they have no plans to resume online classes. “The inclement weather is making many children fall sick, but there seems to be no drastic drop in attendance. Children who are sick can take leave and are urged to come back to school only after complete recovery. They are also screened for possibilities of Covid symptoms. The option of producing a medical certificate is given to the students and their absence is exempted. We have no plans of conducting online classes due to increasing infections in children, rather we conduct remedial classes for them to be taught so that they can catch up on the missed portions that were left unattended,” says Aloysius D’Mello, Principal, Greenwood High International School, Bengaluru.

With the return of children back in schools, bridging the learning gap particularly in smaller children has been a challenge. Schools see offline classes as the preferred mode to deal with this challenge and they do not wish to opt for the hybrid or online mode any longer.

St Joseph’s Boys High School Principal Fr Sunil Fernandes said, “We need to have regular classes as students have already missed the classroom atmosphere in the last two years.” The opinion of parents regarding the classroom mode versus hybrid mode is varied. Parents like Varsha fear that her children can easily fall sick while in school and feels the schools should have the option of hybrid mode of learning for a year till all kids are vaccinated. She says, “My kids are not vaccinated and with the fourth wave currently on, there are still so many cases of Covid in the city. As a survivor of two Covid attacks, I know the pain and do not want my kids to suffer the same.”

On the contrary a few other parents feel their wards need to get conditioned to the climatic conditions and gain immunity. Jhanavi, a parent, said, “The kids want to go to school regularly in spite of slight flu-like symptoms. They are ever ready to run to school every morning just to be with their friends and socalise. I also want to send them to school with adequate protection like a mask and sanitizer. The rest is left to nature,” she said.