The increasing number of corona patients is increasing the concerns of the common people. In the national capital Delhi, the ‘positivity rate’ (the percentage of the number of infected patients in the total number of tests) has exceeded two percent. This time the infection rate among children is high. This has naturally increased the confusion of the parents. His concern is two-pronged. Due to the difficulties faced by online teaching during the Corona transition period, they no longer want the educational institutions opened at full capacity to be closed again after almost two years, and again, they are also worried about their children. Obviously, we have to devise a strategy that not only ensures the safety of our children, but also addresses the concerns of parents and guardians.
There is a demand that children should also be vaccinated rapidly. Some over-enthusiasts are advocating vaccinating even small children. But they should understand that whenever we talk about the efficacy of anti-coronavirus vaccine, that is, efficiencies, then the adult population is in front of us. Such studies have been done only on adults in the country and the world, no such research has been done on children. This is the reason why we do not know whether vaccination is necessary for children or not? Since more than 80 per cent of the adult population in the country has been vaccinated, we are assuming that children should also be vaccinated now. Vaccination is also going on for children above 12 years of age. But we are still in the dark about the efficacy of the vaccine on children. In such a situation, we have to make some efforts to protect them from infection and some educational institutions themselves.
Therefore, we have to do this as a precaution, teach our children how to wash their hands with soap, how to sit in classes by maintaining physical distance, how to cover their mouth when sneezing, how much to use sanitizer etc. All these things are usually taught to children too. Even if we keep doing this, we can still protect our children from infection to a great extent. But these measures alone cannot ensure the safety of our children.
In fact, the cases of corona are increasing continuously even in countries like France and Britain. There children are getting infected as well as adults. But here children’s schools are running with full capacity. They believe that when educational institutions are strictly following COVID-appropriate practices and providing the facilities they need to avoid corona, there is no justification for keeping children at home. However, this only harms their studies. But there are many problems in our country. It is possible that schools in big cities are following the corona guidelines, but in small towns or villages, where most of the schools do not even have the infrastructure, how can they expect that they will be covid appropriate from the children? Will you be insistent on getting the behavior done?
Let’s also assume that the ongoing vaccination of older children will protect them from COVID-19, but what about children below the age of 12, who are very young? Can’t they be expected to follow COVID-appropriate behavior in schools on their own? It is also not guaranteed that they will be wearing masks while playing in the field, during prayer times or in classes. In such a situation, some efforts will have to be made by the educational institutions as well. They have to ensure that they strictly follow the last protocol issued on 1st April. These guidelines outline how institutions can ensure adherence to COVID appropriate practices. This means that educational institutions should have adequate water for washing hands, availability of sanitizers outside classrooms should be ensured and wearing of masks should be mandatory. It is not only necessary for the school staff, teachers and children to follow them, but also the parents coming to the school should not ignore them. The problem is that the older children can be explained to some extent, but the responsibility of ensuring that the younger children follow the COVID-appropriate behavior will be the responsibility of the teachers.
At a time when India has achieved herd immunity against corona (more than 70 percent of the population has developed immunity against corona), advocating vaccination for young children is not acceptable, unless our Have no scientific evidence. If we vaccinate even small children, then their body’s natural immunity against COVID will be blunted. Anyway, parents do not need to worry too much about corona in children, because there have been many studies which show that young children rarely get seriously infected with corona.
It is a good thing that at least 60 percent of children in primary school going to school have been vaccinated, so educational institutions can prevent infection from growing in children by adopting safety measures. But the question is, are our educational institutions in a position to adopt such measures? That should be the concern of our strategists.
(These are the author’s own views)