53% Parents Willing To Send Their Children To School, 44% Still Hesitant: Survey

Recently, Karnataka decided to re-open senior classes for physical lessons from August 23, 2021, joining states like UP, Gujarat, Odisha & Maharashtra which have already open schools.

New Delhi: A new survey has found that about 53% percent of parents are willing to send their children to schools now that the second wave is only at 10% of its peak. However, there is still 44% of parents who are not in favour of schools reopening. 

Recently, Karnataka decided to re-open senior classes for physical lessons from August 23, 2021, joining states like UP, Gujarat, Odisha & Maharashtra. 

In states where schools have opened in the last 30 days, the response has been mixed. In many private schools, physical attendance has been 50% at best. The recent survey by Local Circles asked parents about their opinion of school reopening, out of the 9,711 responses received on an aggregate basis, 53% of Indian parents support the reopening of schools in August-September, however, 44% of parents are against the same. 

When compared to earlier results, 76% of Indian parents were hesitant to send their ward to schools in June right after the deadly second wave. As cases continued to decline in most districts of India, this percentage also reduced drastically to 48% in July, and is currently at 44%. 

Parents were asked whether Rapid Antigens Tests be made available to all schools via the district administrations, out of the 19,354 responses, the majority of 74% of parents who are willing to send children to school want Central and State Governments to ensure that schools have sufficient Rapid Antigen Test kits made available to them via their District Administration. 15% of parents are of the opinion that rapid antigen testing should not be done in schools.

Finally, the survey sought parents’ opinion if the State Governments should ensure District Administrations for August and September organise free vaccination camps at/near schools so all school staff can get vaccinated on priority. Out of the 19,195 responses, the majority of 89% of parents survey said “yes”. Only 11% said “no, let the school/staff arrange for their own vaccination”. 

Based on the data released by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), the time required to reach an infectious dose for an individual from an infected individual if both are wearing an N-95 mask and are 6 feet apart is 167 hours of exposure for regular SARS-COV2 and 68 hours of exposure for Delta variant. If the N-95 mask is well fitted in both cases, the research indicates that it requires 677 hours of exposure to reach an infectious dose. In the context of schools what this indicates is that if N-95 masks are made mandatory and the school period is restricted to 3 hours a day with no break for lunch and social distancing of 6 feet is followed, the likelihood of transmission goes down to near zero.