Over 100 students of Delhi gurukul sent home after 9 test positive

Nine students of a residential gurukul in Central Delhi have reportedly tested positive for Covid-19, following which over 100 students residing there are being sent back to their homes.

Arya Kanya Gurukul in New Rajinder Nagar has students from classes IV to XII, and classes IX to XII are affiliated to the Central Sanskrit University. Students are mostly from lower middle-class and economically weaker families, some from Delhi and others from different districts of Uttar Pradesh such as Etah, Mathura and Aligarh.

Indra Sharma, an ‘acharya’ of the gurukul, said students had been sent home at the start of the lockdown and were called back in July. Around 130 girls had been residing in the gurukul at the time the cases were detected, said Sharma.

“A sadhvi who is a part of the gurukul tested positive last week, following which 16 students who had symptoms like fever, cough and cold were tested. Nine of them tested positive, after which families of all the girls residing in the premises were contacted, asking that they be taken back home,” she said. Manager Sarita Sharma could not be reached for comment.

According to the Delhi government’s Directorate of Education (DoE) guidelines, schools were only permitted to re-open in January, 2021, only for students of class X and XII preparing for their board examinations and for students of class IX and XI preparing for and writing their final exams. In an order last week, the Directorate has said that city schools shall not be permitted to call students of any class, including classes IX to XII, to school for offline classes for the new 2021-2022 academic session. This means that offline school activities for classes IX to XII students is only to help them wrap up the 2020-2021 session. After they are promoted to the next grade, the new academic year may only commence online.

However, the gurukul is not recognised by and is not under the jurisdiction of the DoE.

As Covid cases continue to rise in the capital, cases among those attending schools have been surfacing from time to time. On Sunday, N C Jindal School Public School, Punjabi Bagh, informed parents that a student had tested positive and that a test scheduled for Monday was cancelled. It also asked that all students who had come into contact with the student be tested before visiting the school. Last week, the principal of a prominent school in East Delhi had also tested positive.