Schooling Amid The Pandemic

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Schooling Amid The Pandemic

During the times of the Covid-19 pandemic, schools have been closed not only in the United States of America but also around the world. As the vaccinations are out, schools are trying to reopen with the strict protocols in action. These are very uncertain times and parents being worried about their kids is very likely. The authorities also do not want any mishaps during the course of reopening these schools. The kids can become victims of the virus and they can also become asymptomatic super spreaders. This would be the last thing the authorities would want.

Schooling Amid The Pandemic

The guidelines suggest maintaining a minimum of 6 feet distance among individual students. This would help the kids to remain covid free and also enjoy the environment of the school which was missing from the past year. The federal health experts are stressing over following all the necessary protocols and this will make the students go back to their normal routine life as it was before the pandemic had started.

Schooling Amid The Pandemic

The teachers have also started receiving vaccinations in the ongoing vaccination drive. This decreases the health risk to the students as well as the teachers and makes the school environment ready for welcoming them. The new evidence suggests that students can be seated at a distance of 3 feet apart in a closed enclosure such as a classroom. The States of Illinois and Massachusetts have already implemented this rule and are allowing a 3 feet space between two students. There is no doubt that this decision is very brave and requires a lot of other precautions to be taken.

The students can wear masks while they are seated close to each other. Now, this has become a very debatable topic after the new studies have revealed that students can be seated at a lesser distance than the guidelines suggested. This study was published in Clinical Infectious Diseases which is a journal. This study looked around many schools across the United States of America and posted the outcomes they found during the survey.

Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said through the spokesperson that exploring the idea of seating the students together and reopening schools at full capacity. Earlier the CDC had supported the thought of seating students at a larger distance but as the ongoing studies have suggested otherwise, the CDC is also trying to find out solutions for the problems faced by school-going children.

Many experts are expecting that these studies would be taken seriously and bring the students back to school. If the earlier guidelines would be followed not more than 75% of the total strength of the school could be called back for regular classes. This would have been unfair for the rest 25% strength of the school and we do not need this at the moment. The students are already suffering without a social environment and their friends and this would be the last thing the school authorities would like to impose on those kids.

Apart from all this safety of the students comes first. We need to understand that as much as it is important to reopen the schools, it is also important to take into consideration the healthcare of the school-going kids. Extra precautionary measures are needed to be taken. All the steps with the priority given to the teachers being vaccinated are highly appreciable.

We just hope that no more delay occurs in the reopening of the schools and students can go back to school for a first-hand classroom experience.