Schools take the lead as vaccine drive begins for 12-14 age group

Delhi has received more than 6.3 lakh doses of Corbevax. The Delhi government has designated 140 centres across Delhi, mostly government schools, for administering vaccines to this age category.

One of these schools is the Kautilya Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Greater Kailash. Principal C S Verma said the school’s focus is currently making parents aware of this and getting their consent.

“When we started reaching out to parents and telling them their children will now be eligible for vaccination, around 90% were not aware of this. Our teachers are reaching out to them over call to make sure as many as possible know about this and we are collecting no-objection certificates from them. Since schools are open, and we are having 85-90% attendance, it isn’t too much a challenge. It’s a very good thing for our students that we have the centre right here in our school,” he said.

Awadhesh Jha, principal Sarvodaya Vidyalaya Rohini Sector 5, said that though his school is not one of the centres, he has decided to take the lead in vaccinating eligible students.

“After Holi, we will get in touch with the nearest dispensary and arrange to take one section of students at a time to get them vaccinated, so that should be 40-45 students at a time. We have decided to take them from our own side and do it in bulk instead of asking parents to individually make their way to centres. Since the older children have already been vaccinated, we don’t anticipate much hesitation from the side of parents,” he said.

However, most other schools are waiting for guidelines from the Directorate of Education on what their role in the vaccination effort should be and what steps they should take.

“Till now, I haven’t even been informed which are the centres. Until we get more clarity, I am encouraging students to at least register themselves for the vaccine,” said the head of a government school in Outer Delhi.

Private schools are expressing interest in setting up centres or camps in their schools.

“So far, we’ve sent out a message to the parents. We will also be conducting orientation sessions for the upcoming academic session soon and will be conveying the information to them as well. I’m sure the number of centres will increase soon and that will make it more convenient for them to get it done; we don’t mind our school becoming a centre as well,” said Birla Vidya Niketan principal Minakshi Kushwaha.