Thiruvananthapuram: The state government is interested in the reopening of the school as early as possible because online education has taken great casualties on the mental and physical welfare of students, the Minister of Public Education V Sivankutty told the assembly on Monday.
“The government wants to reopen the school in a gradual way.
But when to start the opening of the school depends on permission from the central government and suggestions from the state expert committee in Covid,” he said.
The steps will be placed to ensure a vaccine for all students and when the central government announces the direction in this matter, the school can be opened only after that, the Minister said.
Citing the findings of the study report prepared by Scerter, Sivankutty said many students suffer from a variety of physical discomfort and health problems when locked up in a digital class for a regular duration regularly.
“Online digital class is not an alternative to learning conventional classes,” he said.
A study conducted by Scerter in higher secondary students in the state found that around 36% of students reported headaches and 28% had eye fatigue.
While 36% of students complained about neck pain, 15% of students were worried about visual problems, he said.
According to this study, only 25 students were involved in physical training and only the percent of students who could be ignored were involved in outdoor activities such as gardening.
Sivankutty said the government seeks to be sensitive to parents about the dangers of hiding in the cyber room.
Awareness program, he said, was being carried out with the help of NGOs.
“From next month and so on, the teacher will provide counseling to parents about the steps that must be taken by them to keep their wards from danger in the cyber room,” Minister said.
“The Department of General Education provides counseling to manage mental stress in connection with digital class.
However, there is a scarcity of sufficient counselors.
To overcome this, the government actively considers the appointment of more counselors,” he said.
Sivankutty said the government had decided to introduce a sign language class to help students with aural difficulties.