School closure is no longer tenable: Doctors, academicians

Doctors, academicians, and professionals have written to all Chief Ministers, PMO, Union Minister of Education, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, and National Disaster Management Authority on ‘Why schools should be open now and opening of primary schools should be given higher priority’.

The signatories of the elaborate letter include various doctors and academicians from various educational institutions in the country, and also ‘The National Coalition on the Education Emergency’, a coalition of individuals and organizations to build awareness of the costs of school closure, to advocate for the safe reopening of schools.

The letter says that school closure is no longer tenable, especially for our younger children who are at the least risk from Covid-19 and are having to give a huge price due to school closure.

Here are the major points from the letter by doctors and academicians:

• Covid-19 vaccines for children are not a prerequisite for reopening schools as American data states that those under 25 are at one-tenth of mortality risk from the virus.
• Delta variant scare is making people step back but since it was first reported in India, over two-thirds of the country’s population have been exposed to it already including a majority of children.
• Schools are not superspreaders as per multiple studies and aggressive testing in non-school settings may also reveal positive results.
• Recognising that the issue of school reopening being viewed as ‘life vs education’ is flawed as children are at low risk from Covid-19 and loss of education may cause long-term harm including poverty and malnutrition.
• Vaccines for teachers and staff at 100% coverage are not needed mandatorily as per scientific evidence.
• Attending schools should be made optional.
• Strengthening the health infrastructure in view of Covid-19 should continue parallelly alongside empowering local authorities to reopen schools.
• Though social media says school reopening should be postponed due to an impending third wave due to upcoming festivals, UNICEF and other agencies have said that schools should be last to close and first to reopen in a pandemic.