An increasing number of private schools that are preparing to resume physical classes for lower primary school students after Deepavali are asking parents to furnish vaccination certificates. Other school managements have requested undertakings from parents stating that they are vaccinated.
One of the reasons for this is to ensure that when children start attending offline classes, they face the “lowest risk” of contracting COVID-19 infection on campus. “We also hope to ease fears of a cluster breaking out,” said principals and teachers.
Dakshayini Kanna, Senior Principal, Harvest International School, said parents of students were asked to submit and sign statements stating that they are vaccinated. “We have ensured that all our teaching and non-teaching staff have completed both doses of vaccination,” she said. She added that while physical classes are yet to resume in full swing, students come to school for practical classes and examinations.
Some school managements feel that asking for the vaccination certificates is a confidence-building measure. A teacher working in a private school affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education said, “I am the class teacher for class V students and 77% of the parents had submitted their vaccination certificates. I told the remaining 23% of the parents that if they are vaccinated, all the students would be relatively safe as their chances of contracting infection from students' families would be reduced. Now, many of these parents said that they will get their shot after Deepavali.”
However, many school managements said parents are claiming that they have not received the vaccination certificates even though they have completed both doses.
Sumanth Narayan, founder of Shanthinikethana School, said that they plan to ask parents to provide proof of their vaccination. “These need to be submitted to the respective class teachers. We will ensure that students who submit these details get extra marks as well,” he said.
D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools, said that they had asked the government to ensure that parents were given priority and vaccinated at the earliest.