School reopening experience: The Chintels School, Kanpur

– Sukanya Nandy

After seven months of lockdown, Kanpur-based The Chintels School (estb. 1989) opened its gate for students of grade IX to XII from October 20, 2020, following all the school reopening guidelines, keeping in mind all the risk analysis and strategising accordingly. Promoted by Anurag Vij, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE)-affiliated school aims to nurture the intellect and conscience of every student in a caring and stimulating environment.

Reopening the school post-lockdown has not been an easy road for The Chintels School, Kanpur. “The biggest challenge for the reopening after the lockdown was not only to arrange and procure the physical aids and the amenities of the safety measures (mask, sanitising, social distancing, thermometers, pledges, etc.) but to overcome the fear of corona spread amongst the mankind,” says Nandita Basak, Principal, The Chintels School, Kanpur.

The school is currently conducting a blended mode of education, that is, both online and offline. For the physical classes, students have been divided into two groups per class, which are then conducted in two shifts.

Safety measures taken to ensure effective social distancing:

Physical distancing

• A change in the seating arrangement was inducted with 15 students per class.
• Maintaining a distance of at least 1 metre between everyone present at school.
• Increasing desk spacing (at least 1 metre between desks), stagger recesses/breaks and lunch breaks.
• Staggering the school day to vary the start and end times and avoid having all the students and teachers together at once.
• Placing the pandemic dos and dont’s list in the classroom.
• If the number of students increases for offline classes, then the school will run in two shifts – 8:00 am to 11:00 am and 11:30 am to 2:30 am.

Health and hygiene

• Students, faculty and staff, all have been instructed to wear masks at all times.
• Encouraging students to get into the practice of regularly washing their hands and applying hand sanitizers at key moments – such as entering and leaving the classroom, touching surfaces, learning materials, books, and after using a tissue to blow their nose.
• Regular cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces and objects that are touched often – such as desks, countertops, doorknobs, computer keyboards, hands-on learning items, taps and phones.

“We are trying to make rules and aware our students and staff for avoiding high risk and high touch areas in their classrooms and school premises. The school is also creating fun reminders, posters and much more to avoid spread Covid–19,” adds Basak.

Since it reopened last month, the school has been witnessing student attendance of 20-30 percent. Outdoor activities are yet to start.

Read: Uttar Pradesh: Schools reopen after seven months

Also read: Preparing children for school reopening

Also read: Karnataka: Final decision on school reopening by Nov 6