Health: Contagion And Classroom

Classroom Coinciding with encouraging visitor footfalls, the return of the seasonal workforce and the traders, the Government reopened schools after 19 months. An elaborate exercise involving almost every family, managing contagion-free campuses is a challenge on daily basis. A Team KL report about the issues and how the systems are tackling them in public and private sector

On March 1, Arshad Ahmad, a government schoolteacher posted at a Pulwama school was passionate about resuming his duties and to teach the students. He had to enter the classroom exactly after 19 months of lock-down. Conscious of the loss that 19 months entailed for a student, Ahmad wanted to not waste any more time.

The last time he taught his students was August 3, 2019 two days before the Article 370 was scrapped. This was followed by six months of security and information lock-down. Then in March 2020, Coronavirus pandemic dictated another lock down.

On the very first day of his school, however, Ahmad got a call from his principal’s office revealing that he had to attend a 5-day training programme. He had to immediately report to a new pace. Ahmad was bewildered.

“I found it bizarre. At least, management should know how much time is already lost,” said Ahmad. The training programme was about learning the SOPs to be followed to prevent the contagion to spread.

“I am not against the training; in fact, these are good exercises to participate in. But my only concern is - could we not do this prior to the opening of the schools also? Were not we sitting idle for a long time?” Ahmad said. “You pull out teachers from the schools on working days. It definitely affects the education of the children.”