Covid fourth wave threat to kid students
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: July 12, 2022 -

IT needs no reminding that the education sector would be the hardest hit sector in case there is further increase in the number of Covid-19 positive cases in the state.

After remaining free from the infectious disease for around two months, it is obvious that the contagion will cause disruption to normal life yet again if the number of infected people increased.

Subsequent to outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020 and governments across the world resorted to lockdown to contain the viral disease, development of a vaccine and its distri-bution/administration was considered the lone option to wriggle out of the health crisis.

However, despite extensive vaccination programme and government authorities attributing gradual decline in the number of infection and Covid-induced fatalities to the vaccination exercise the onset of the fourth wave indicates that the threat from the disease is not yet over and the public will have to adhere to the basics of the safety protocols so as to avert the repetition of the first two waves when the pandemic battered the health care systems of several countries, including India and left the health experts to speculate when it will reach its peak and then gain herd immunity.

It is also worth noting here that even before launch of the nationwide vaccination programme, policy makers, who had vilified whoever opposed the decision to enforce lockdown, perceived it wise not to resort to the same tactics during the virulent second wave which led to record-breaking daily cases and deaths in thousands, mainly due to economic considerations.

The problems in agricultural and industrial sectors, to name a few, that essentially centre on availability of labour and ability to access markets, were sorted out as the government gave thrust towards putting the economy back on track from the second phase of the nationwide lockdown itself and allowed staggered operation of goods manufacturing units.

However, the education sector remained out of the government's radar with exception of advocating online classes, which too was accessible only to children from the creamier layer of the society.

As such, despite onset of the fourth wave in the state, as had been confirmed by Health Services director Dr K Rajo, it is unlikely that the government would take any drastic measures to prevent the virus from affecting the conventional classroom teaching and learning process other than appealing to all the public to ensure that necessary precautionary measures be followed voluntarily to curb transmission of the respiratory disease.

During the first three waves of the pandemic, the otherwise continuous process of education had to rely on modern tele-communication system and gadgets to ensure that the students didn't remain idle.

While college and higher secondary education partially resumed normal classes, lower classes reopened only this year in view of the significant improvement in the situation.

With the daily infection count at the juncture constantly recorded at 20-plus cases one can only hope that the situation will improve on its own for there has been a tendency among the general population to acknowledge seriousness of the situation only when the pandemic starts to take effect on the students, especially the young kids, physically and academically.