COVID-19: Teachers welcome reopening schools in Delhi

New Delhi [India], February 5 : Following a decline in COVID-19 cases, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Friday decided to reopen schools and colleges in a phased manner from February 7, and several teachers welcomed the step.
Schools will reopen only for Classes 9, 10, 12. The rest of the classes will be open from February 14.This decision came after a COVID-19 review meeting of the DDMA.
RC Jain, President of the Delhi State Public School's Management Association said, "For a very long time, our association had been demanding that schools should be opened because schools were opened in almost all of the states of the country. Even schools outside the country had opened. The World Health Organization (WHO) had also said that now there is no justification for closing the school. So, now schools will be opened, I welcome it and that too in phases. But, the way they have talked about running schools both online and offline, it would've been better if they would've done it all offline just like they did for colleges. Students were waiting eagerly."
The DDMA in it s order directed all higher educational institutions, colleges, ITIs, polytechnic and skill institutes to only take offline classes from Monday.
However, the schools have been directed to function in a hybrid mode with both online and offline classes.
Maya Gupta, Principal, Universal Public School said, "It is a very positive step of reopening schools after such a long time. We have been waiting for so long for the reopening of schools."
Laying emphasis on prioritizing COVID protocols to keep the virus away from infecting children, Gupta said that proper check will be done.
"Our utmost priority is students health and safety. Sanitation, checking of temperature, sanitation of classrooms, all will be done daily. 80 per cent of students in class 9 onwards of our schools are vaccinated. Yesterday also, there was a vaccination camp at our school and we motivated students to take the vaccine to students who didn't get it earlier," Gupta added.
Veena Mishra, Principal, National Victor Public School said, "We are very happy that schools are being reopened after so long. Students will come to school after almost 2 years. I welcome the decision of the government."
She further said that the students of her schools are completely vaccinated. "So, the first covid measure keeping the covid situation in mind I had been met," she said.
"We have decided to bring students in batches. We will divide the batches into two so that social distancing is followed in the classrooms. We are also planning to change the timings as well. Another thing which we will keep in mind is sanitisation. All the classrooms will be sanitised. We have put soap dispensers with hand sensors and taps so that there is minimum touch. Mask will be compulsory. We are 100 per cent ready. We will run the school in hybrid mode as per the instructions. Students in batches will come to school on alternate days and the other days they'll attend classes online," she added.
Yogesh Singh, Vice-Chancellor, University of Delhi said, "We are going to examine the order issued by DDMA. If they say that colleges can be open with 100 per cent capacity, then we will open the colleges soon which is within 10 days. Students from various states study at our university. It takes time for students to look for their accommodation be it hostel or PG. If we suddenly reopen it, then students will be at loss. So, looking at the situation, we will issue a date. We can reopen the colleges in a phased manner as well or together. I feel within 15 days, we will reopen the colleges. But if they have given any conditional approval of reopening the colleges, then I can't say, but chances are that it will be open. We will make preparation in 5-10 days for students and then will open the university. The decision of reopening colleges is fine. They have experts and data and they must have taken this decision after looking all aspects. We did not open university because they were not allowing with 100 per cent capacity."
The DDMA on Friday released an order relaxing COVID-19 curbs in Delhi. It gave its nod to reopen schools for classes 9 to 12 in hybrid mode.
Delhi Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had said hybrid classes will continue while colleges will be asked to discourage online classes and have offline classes instead.