HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court on Wednesday expressed serious concern over the safety of children, particularly those studying in classes I to IX, if the state government goes ahead with its plans to reopen educational institutions from July 1.
Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy sought to know from the government whether it was making physical attendance compulsory for kids.
The bench posed several questions to advocate general BS Prasad while resuming hearing in a batch of Covid-19 related PILs filed by advocates Sameer Ahmad, P Thirumala Rao, and a couple of others.
On the instructions of the AG, school education department secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania attended the virtual hearing and said the government was preparing the modalities and guidelines for running the schools offline.
“We will run the classes with the consent of parents,” he said.
Senior counsel L Ravi Chander said a GO was issued for reopening the schools and colleges, but the government did not mention anything about the attendance.
The judges sought to know from Sultania whether the government was making the attendance mandatory.
He replied that the consent of parents was crucial and that they were in the process of preparing the modalities.
At this, the judges wondered if the government had announced its decision without doing groundwork.
“This is a knee-jerk reaction.
Parents have apprehensions.
You (government) should not insist on parents to send their wards, particularly those below class X, to schools compulsorily.
See which way the wind is blowing.
Draw your policy keeping in view the children’s well-being,” the judges said.
The judges said the students do not know how to maintain social distance and frequent sanitising.
“Post the second wave, many cities are still dithering.
As the second wave has left a trail of devastation, damage and caused loss of lives, parents are more apprehensive now,” they said, echoing the sentiments of the parents.
Sultania said schools and colleges were reopened after the first wave was over in February and March this year.
“It was not compulsory at that time also.
What was compulsory was not the attendance but the consent of the parents.
This time too, it won’t be any different,” he said.
Responding to a query from counsel Chikkudu Prabhakar who said the lives of students will be at risk if they were forced to go to schools now, the judges said they will give time to the government to prepare its policy and then examine it.
Ravi Chander urged the court to give a direction to the government to continue the online mode even after reopening of the schools.
Director of public health Dr G Srinivasa Rao informed the court they had categorised all teachers and lecturers as high-risk groups and would soon vaccinate all of them.
“The combined strength of teachers and non-teaching staff in schools and colleges will be more than five lakhs and we will soon provide vaccination to all of them,” he said.
The judges also directed the state government to create a separate mechanism to attend to the needs of those who slipped into depression or suffering from mental disorders during the isolation and also to attend to the increased cases of domestic violence during the pandemic.