Nagpur: Some schools are being approached by local politicians to hand over their campus for Covid Care Centre (CCC) facilities, something which academics say is impossible considering that board exams are scheduled to start in two weeks.
Not wishing to be identified, a group of state board school principals told TOI that they have been separately approached by politicians. “I was called by a leader on Thursday who said that since schools are closed for physical classes, he wants to use it for a CCC. I told him that though schools are closed for students, everyday our staff is on campus to carry out academic work,” said the principal.
Another principal, whose family is also the school’s trustee, said, “Our staff comes to school not only for online teaching work, but also for clerical duties. Board exams are starting soon and there is lot of paperwork to be done.”
This year, the Maharashtra government has modified its rules for the board exams to accommodate challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Now every school is an exam centre because students will appear in their alma mater only rather than an external centre. So our workload has that way increased and a lot of coordination needs to be done,” said another principal.
“We told the politicians that board exams are starting from April 23 and so, there is no way schools can be handed over to function as CCCs. In fact we advised them to take control of engineering colleges which are not functioning at all in physical mode. Their exams too are happening online,” said the principal.
As the number of cases rise, political party workers and leaders are also gearing up to rope in social and private infrastructure for assistance.
“But rather than schools, they must look for hostels. In our schools there’s just one common washroom, so using it as a CCC facility will be a bad idea,” said a principal.