Parents worried, teachers wary of ensuring norms  

ROURKELA: Even as the State government has announced plans to reopen schools for Class 9 to 12 from this month, most educational institutions are ill-equipped to comply with even the basic Covid-19 safety norms.

While parents are apprehensive about the readiness of the schools and junior colleges in provisioning adequate measures for safety of the students, a majority of the teaching community also has cautioned about the absence of required infrastructure to enforce social distancing and other norms across the institutions. 

Rourkela city has about 14 government and aided junior colleges besides around a dozen English medium schools imparting Plus II education.Junior lecturer of Sushilavati Government Women’s Junior College Dipika Majhi pointed out that in Class XI of political science, there are 400 students in four sections. The existing classrooms are designed to accommodate a maximum of 100 students at a time with three to four students sitting together on a bench. Without adequate space and additional benches and desks, maintaining social distancing would be a problem.

The Government Autonomous College (GAC), Rourkela, which also houses the junior college and runs multiple PG courses as well as the IGNOU centre, would face major difficulties. Reopening of the junior college would lead to immediate resumption of Plus III and PG classes, informed a lecturer. He pointed out that one section of a class has 128 students but classrooms are not spacious enough to enforce social distancing.  

GAC principal Bijay Kumar Behera said the existing classrooms are used for Plus II, Plus III and PG courses. Sanitising classrooms thrice a day is practically difficult. Reopening of hostels would pose further challenges. “The government has been apprised of these problems with a request to allow continuation of online classes. However, the college administration is ready to abide by any decision of the government,” he added.

Suresh Yadav, a parent, opined that classroom teaching should be suspended till the new year. Students from far-flung areas would come in buses and auto-rickshaws which are risky. A single student may infect the whole group. 

Another parent Anand Awasthi said the threat is real and more acute in view of the winter season. “I am more concerned about the safety of my daughter than her education. Youngsters huddling  in leisure time on campuses cannot be prevented,” he said. However, principal of Delhi Public School Siddharath Rath begged to differ and said with adequate precautions, educational institutions should reopen as the pandemic is likely to stay longer.  

No respite from Covid for Sundargarh
Rourkela: Even as new Covid-19 cases have started declining at many places in Odisha from September, there has been no respite from the high rate of new infections in Sundargarh district. In October, the district reported 3,438 new cases and 30 deaths. In the last four days of November, as many as 378 fresh positive cases and four deaths have been reported. Sundargarh had reported 3,096 Covid-19 cases and four deaths in September. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, 104 fresh cases were reported from the district. Of the total 11,399 positive cases in Sundargarh, 809 are active. So far, 74 persons have died of Covid-19.