The classrooms have been sporting a barren look devoid of the clatter of furniture and the enthusiastic voices that are ever a constant. There have been no teachers around for months together and ditto for classroom sessions. Hence, basically no active teaching. That blackboard has been hanging in dry for well over half a year. It’s been such a long wait to see resumption of any kind of schooling action. What was once and so often the playground of happiness as also the temple of learning, has since long been the home of the fear stemming with the Coronavirus.
And everyone has been long questioning- when might the schools in Delhi reopen? When will loud voices, enthusiastic chirps, and the collective consciousness of young, ‘would-be-budding-talents’ replace the defeating silence. So just when are the schools in Delhi slated to reopen?
Well believe it or not, but where it stands right now, that is not the only question; the main thing is just how come the students, despite these being massively well-informed times where information about the COVID 19 guidelines is quite the daily norm, so uninformed about the COVID 19 guidelines?
But here’s what you ought to know, something that might take you in by sheer surprise. A recent survey by Smile Foundation, a not-for-profit suggests that either students have half-hearted knowledge about the existing guidelines or as it turns out in several cases, are simply not aware.
Those that have been covered by the said foundation, were students in the age group of 8 to 18 and from as many as 131 schools. This survey, held during the period of February-March covered no fewer than 12 states.
In some ways, it can be said, while there’s this unbridled excitement about getting back to the classrooms, those that were left devoid of the much-needed enthusiasm for months (together), it’s also a bit disparaging to note just how little is known by those who matter so much.
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Here’s what the Indian Express had to share in lines with the findings of the Smile Foundation survey:
The survey has found that an overwhelming 78 per cent of students are happy about the prospect of reopening of schools, but 22 per cent are anxious and scared of meeting their school friends and interacting with them.
As many as 52 per cent of students were found to be concerned about consuming mid-day meals when schools reopen. At least 41 per cent were not found fully comfortable following COVID protocols in school.
But were it just the students that were covered in this said finding, one’s got to ask? To that end, it’s important to note that it weren’t only the students who were probed on the ongoing guidelines. As a matter of fact, as many as 75 teachers from around 12 states that were questioned.
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That said, there were a few questions in the minds of the teachers who remained divided about the pattern of schooling amid the installation of the guidelines. To that end, here’s what the Indian Express report suggested-
The survey suggested that 44 per cent of teachers feel students will not be able to catch up with learning as per the conventional grades’ standard when they return to schools, while 42 per cent of teachers felt maintaining COVID protocols will be the other major challenge for returning students.