Fifty-three per cent of parents in India support reopening of schools in August-September and are ready to send their children for in-person classes, while 44% parents are against it. Further, 76% of Indian parents were hesitant to send their ward to schools in June right after the deadly second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. As cases continued to decline in most districts of India, this percentage also reduced drastically to 48% in July, and is currently at 44%, as per the latest survey conducted by community social media platform LocalCircles. 

Random rapid antigen testing (RAT) in schools is something experts from around the world have been recommending as schools reopen, and 74% of parents who are willing to send children to school want union and state governments to ensure that schools have sufficient RAT kits made available to them via their district administration. The survey received over 47,000 responses from 24,000 parents residing in 378 districts of India.

Vaccination of all staff including management, teachers and ground staff can play a crucial role in the safe opening of schools as suggested by epidemiologists. Eight-nine per cent of parents who are willing to send children to school want state governments to ensure district administrations organise free vaccination camps at /near schools so all staff can get vaccinated on priority. 

Those willing to send children include parents whose children are unable to avail online classes or find them ineffective or less effective in comparison to those in person. Most of them believe while cases in their districts are zero or in single digits, schools should function. On the other hand, parents, who are unwilling to send children to school for in-person classes, cite the risk of festivals (Rakhi, Onam, Ganesh Puja, others) leading to cases going up, low chances of effective physical distancing in schools and the risk of COVID to children, and through them to adults at home, the survey found. 

According to LocalCircles, global epidemiologists have suggested six factors for safe opening of schools, including (a) vaccination of every staff member, (b) good ventilation in classrooms including air purifiers in each class, (c) mandatory masking of KN95 or N95 (no cloth mask), (d) seating with physical distancing, (e) no big indoor gatherings, and (f) Random RAT testing of staff and students.

“If the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) goes above 2-3%, immediate calls must be taken to shut down schools in the district again. Also, state government permitting the opening of schools does not mean schools must reopen. Schools must take their own calls on reopening based on their readiness and comfort levels of parents and find the right offline-online combination to decide when to reopen,” LocalCircles noted. 

LocalCircles said for schools and students that have the privilege of online education, a good start may be two times a week of in-person classes so students can slowly start getting back into the routine, meet friends and get a break from the screen while continuing education online for the remainder of the days. “Basis progress and local daily caseloads, the number of days of physical school can then be increased. For those schools that do not have the infrastructure for online education, physical classes can start for all days of the week but are limited to 3-hour sessions to start with. The hours can then be adjusted upwards if cases continue to stay low,” it added. 

LocalCircles said it will share the findings of this survey with key stakeholders in the Union government and chief secretaries of all states so that inputs of parents can be considered as they decide to reopen school and sustainment strategy.