Delhi: Covid cases rising, schools unlikely to resume for primary classes

On December 17, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) had advised state governments in the NCR and the Delhi government to take an immediate decision to resume physical classes for classes VI onwards and colleges, after a period of air pollution induced closure. Schools reopened for these grades the next day.

The CAQM had also advised the government to take a decision to resume physical classes for students up to class V from December 27, after duly considering the air quality index and the winter vacation schedule.

However, a senior education department official told The Indian Express it is unlikely that such a step is going to be taken by the government.

This comes amid a sharp increase in the number of Covid cases in the city over the last week in response to which the government has put in place a night curfew and is considering issuing the “yellow alert” of its Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). On Monday, the city reported 331 new cases with a positivity rate of 0.68%.

In the meantime, with children aged 15-18 eligible for Covid vaccination from January 3, schools are working towards ensuring that their students register for it.

“The announcement is very exciting and all our efforts are going in the direction of winning the confidence of parents in it. We are planning webinars with doctors for parents, and have already contacted a hospital and have requested them to conduct vaccination on our premises itself. That’s the only thing that can lead to some kind of stability in schooling. When we had reopened last week we were seeing 75% attendance and now it has dropped to 25%,” said Mount Abu Public School principal Jyoti Arora.

“I addressed students of classes X, XI and XII in small groups today to create awareness on the vaccine and I found that the students were very receptive to it. If required, we will call a PTM to convince parents as well. I will try to arrange for a vaccination centre for the students in our school,” said Awadhesh Jha, principal of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Rohini Sector 8.