With the coronavirus still an active entity across the world, majority of the countries are starting to ease the restrictions because of the falling economy. While shops and offices are becoming operational again, the one thing that people have been sceptical about is the reopening of the schools.
Children have a reduced immunity and are often naïve enough to not follow through the process of social distancing, thus contracting the virus eventually. But, even with the risks, the Infectious Disease Expert, Anthony Fauci reported that there could be several measures that can be taken to help with the reopening of the schools in US.
Dr.Fauci reported that it is kind of a reach to say at this point that the schools could be closed till fall this year. Instead, there could be certain important precautions that the schools could take to ensure reopening gradually without further issues.
Fauci conducted a telephonic interview with reporters from CNN, suggesting insights into the reopening process after the Ohio Governor Mike DeWine reported that he is planning on keeping the school buildings opened by June barring the spiked increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country.
DeWine reported that his aim is to get the children back to the classrooms.
The school districts across US are planning for the fall sessions nationwide. They are also working on varying contingencies that would help the children learn from home. Authorities are emphasising more on virtual learning.
Just last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a complete detailed guideline for the schools to ensure smoother reopening without any hassle at all.
“Children can get infected, so, yes, so you’ve got to be careful. You got to be careful for them and you got to be careful that they may not spread it. Now, to make an extrapolation that you shouldn’t open schools, I think, is a bit of a reach,” said Dr.Fauci to CNN.
He further reported that the reopening of the schools depends on the viral activity in a particular area. It is now time for the school authorities to become creative in reconfiguring the classrooms to maintain proper social distancing norms inside the schools.
Dr.Fauci reported that some schools and situations will be easier to reopen without any changes. While, there are some situations that will require important changes. Some will need quite a lot of modifications. Important ones being breaking the classroom into two to reduce the number of students in each classroom or even change the timings, bringing in some students in the morning and some in the afternoon.
In mid-May, Fauci warned the authorities that reopening America just for the economy without a concrete plan will end up causing negative impacts on the country.
Majority of the education leaders are worried about the expenses that follow the requirements of the modifications in the schools. Majority of the state budgets which have been plummeting because of the affected economy is also affecting the lack of sanctioned money for the school districts.
“It is already apparent that implementing them will be very costly and significantly change the education landscape. The question becomes, how much are we willing to stray from them for the sake of expediency and/or reducing the costs involved?” said Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators.
