Health before education: Parents, teachers say no to school until safety is assured

The government has shelved plans to reopen schools on tomorrow,, as parents and teachers insist that the situation is still not conducive for children to come out of their homes with more Covid- 19 cases being reported from several parts of the country.

Parents and teachers said in one voice that the time was not right to reopen schools and that the government should wait for the 'all clear signal' from the health sector.

Education unions said the parents were worried and would not send their children to schools.

The Independent Education Teachers Union said the military’s occupation of 13 leading schools in the Gampaha district had exasperated the crisis.

The union’s General Secretary Jagath Ananda said that in addition, three schools near the Suduwela police station in Ja-ela — Bopitiya MV, Kanishta MV and Jayanthi MV — remain closed following the detection of a Covid-19 case in the area.

He said the parents did not feel that the schools were safe for children to attend classes as several military personnel had contracted the disease.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry has requested the security forces to clean up, fumigate and sanitize the buildings before handing them over to the school authorities.

R. M. Ratnayake, who serves as a teacher at the Wayamba Royal College in Kurunegala,said it was difficult for schools to implement the social distancing rule on account of the limited space availability in classrooms.

“Already the classrooms are packed with some 45 to 50 students. How is social distancing possible?” he asked.

“Besides, children share the same toilets, taps and line up at the tuck shop to buy food. Therefore keeping a meter between them is impossible. Also children cannot be asked to wear face mask right throughout the day. It’s a tall order,” he added

Jaffna’s Muthuthambi MV teacher Theeliban Arokyanathan said several schools in the Jaffna district were being used by the forces and the Education Ministry should evacuate them and ensure the schools were safe for children to start activities.

Wasanthi Dissanayake whose three children attend the Maliyadeva MV in Kurunegala said she would not send her children to school any time soon. “The situation has to ease and the health authorities should assure us that it is safe to send children back to school,” she’s she said, adding that “children's lives are more important than their education.”.

Meanwhile the Education Ministry is making arrangements to have the schools reopened soon.

Ministry Secretary N.H.M. Chitrananda said arrangements were being made and he was waiting the government's order to resume schools for the second term.

He said he was talking to zonal and provincial education directors, outlining the maximum preparation that needed to be taken before the re-opening.

The discussion had centred on maintaining the Covid-19 protocol which includes re-arrangement of seating, washing hands and wearing face masks in classrooms.

The possibility of increasing the study time by opening schools from 8 am to 3 pm and schools functioning on Saturdays and Sundays to cover up the syllabus were also discussed, he said.

“The children have lost 250 hours of school work and we can recover the hours only by opening all seven days,” he said.

To reduce congestion in classrooms, the ministry has planned to have classes on a priority basis, with children sitting for the national exams in August, starting first.

Accordingly, children sitting the grade 5 scholarship exam and the Advanced Level exams will resume schooling first.