71% Parents Not Willing to Send Kids to School, Suggests Survey

71% of parents told they are not willing to send their children/grandchildren to school in October.

About 71 percent of parents surveyed across India are not willing to send their kids to school in India due to the coronavirus pandemic, shows a recent survey by a community social media platform.

While the number of coronavirus cases is rising sharply in India, the government has started reopening schools on a voluntary basis.

According to the latest report by LocalCircles, the number of parents willing to send their children to schools has dropped from 23 percent in August to 20 percent in September.

Schools and other educational institutes across India have been shut since mid-March due to the pandemic. According to the Unlock 5.0 guidelines, the decision to reopen schools and colleges has to be taken in consultation with the school’s management after assessing the situation and attendance is not mandatory in schools. Online learning would continue to be the preferred mode of teaching.

The total number of coronavirus infections in India has crossed 63 million and is very close to clocking over 1 lakh deaths.

Parents Feel Schools Shouldn’t Open for This Academic Year

The survey received over 14,500 responses from parents located in around 217 districts of the country with 61% parents from Tier 1 districts, 21% from Tier 2 districts and 18% from Tier 3, Tier 4 and rural districts of India.

When asked if parents would be willing to send their children/grandchildren to school in October, 71% said a definite no while only 20% said yes. 9% were not sure about it.

32% of the respondents have told that schools should not open till 31 December, while 34% said schools should not be reopened for this whole academic year, that is till March/April 2021.

Many parents also raised concerns over the upcoming smog season, especially in north India.

In 2019, when the pollution levels reached unsafe levels in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, 74% parents had demanded that the government announce a ‘smog break’ for schools from 1 -20 November each year. This is another reason cited by many parents who participated in the survey to consider the reopening of schools only next year.