It has been more than a year since the schools functioned. Face-to-face meetings for school students was a complete no-no for the past one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation and the lockdown restrictions.

So, as schools re-opened in a limited way in Tamil Nadu from September 1 (for classes 9th to 12th) it’s time to take a look at the pandemic situation and the students' mental and physical well-being.

How parents and students have taken this school reopening after one whole year of lockdown crisis? Are they open to socialising? Are they ready to face the situation? Although 2020 – 2021 saw fairly high vaccination rates, it is still a challenge for students and educators as vaccines have not reached children below 18-years yet.

As we looked out for students and parents’ reactions, there is a big setback in students’ understanding and observational powers in the wake of the online classes. Their burden, if any, has become more.

Children in high schools are more likely to drop out, particularly school seniors from low-income families, who are less likely to go for higher education. The crisis had an impact not only on the academics, but also took a toll on the children’s health. More than 35 per cent of parents are really worried about the mental health of their wards.

Earlier, it was only the unexpected holidays triggered by sudden, heavy downpours. But recently, the long school closure due to Covid-19, heightened expectations about an earlier re-opening of schools.

Parents were worried about their children getting addicted to mobile phones, which was earlier a strict keep-away thing; but now mobile phones have turned into an online classroom, which in turn have made kids lazy and less attentive.

The school reopening date evoked a mixed response from parents’ kids and teachers. The major worry is “fear of the virus spread”. On the other side, kids feel they are missing their teachers in person, and their teaching tips and techniques.

And most importantly, they missed their friends. So, in the middle of all these mixed feelings, the students are now in schools sitting close to their pals, meeting their favourite teachers from their most memorable benches!

Before we could even feel happy about schools re-opening, reports of few students/ teachers testing positive to Covid-19 in one or more schools in the districts like Namakkal, is a cause for concern.

Schools have taken necessary steps to sanitize the classrooms and keep them closed and not to be used for now. But amid a feared third wave, predicted to target kids, we should not be caught napping. Though education is essential and plays a major role in everyone’s life, the current myths and facts demand of us to hold on to health rather than to education for now.

We also have to definitely look into the World Health Organisation’s warning about the ‘wave 3’ of the novel Coronavirus. “The Delta variant is now reported in more than 111 countries and we expect it to soon be the dominant Covid-19 strain circulating worldwide, if it isn’t already,” a UN report quoted World Health Organisation chief Ghebreyesus as saying. He added that the Coronavirus is continuing to evolve and resulting in more transmissible variants.

So, taking this as a very important warning note from the WHO and not to put the life of children at risk, we should take a position that essentially puts health at the centre of the response system, even if children feel disinterested due to online classes and thirst for going back to school.