On Saturday Goa saw the highest single day spike in Covid-19 cases with 740 people having tested positive. The number of people succumbing to the disease is also very high for a small state like Goa.
It is understood that the government plans to partially reopen educational institutions for classes IX to XII and the final year graduation level on September 21 in consultation with parent-teachers associations and headmasters’ association.
Given the spike in the number of positive cases of the novel coronavirus, opening of educational institutions at this juncture may not be a good idea. There is every possibility of school children having low immunity becoming susceptible to the infection.
Students cannot be expected to wear the mask for long durations during the school hours. When adults do not maintain social distancing, one cannot expect children to maintain the same, especially in the school bus, during the school break and while using the common washroom.
Mercifully in Goa so far children have been spared of the viral infection mainly because they are at home all the time. Re-opening of educational institutions could expose them to the infection leading to disastrous consequences.
This will create havoc in the State. It would be desirable for the government not to reopen educational institutions at this juncture but rather wait till such time that the number of positive cases shows a downslide.
