62% parents across Maharashtra think sending kids to school risky: Survey

MUMBAI: Even as schools wait to welcome back students from Monday, parents seem reluctant to send their children, still preferring virtual classrooms for now. Only 11% of parents in an online survey across the state responded positively to sending their children to physical schools any time soon.
While physical schools started reopening in October, it was only by December that attendance of students rose to over 90%, especially in higher classes.Schools had to shut down offline classes for standard 1-9 and 11 due to rising Omicron cases. On Thursday, the state allowed restarting all classes.
LocalCircles, a community social media platform, reached out to 4,976 parents across tier 1, 2, 3 cities in all 36 districts. The online survey found 62% parents unwilling to take the risk of sending children to physical school. "Parents want the test positivity rate to drop to 5% or lower before sending children to physical schools," said chairperson and founder Sachin Taparia. Parental consent is mandatory for students' physical attendance in schools.
Around 67% of the participants in the survey were men. Tier 1 cities saw 44% participation, followed by 31% from tier 2 and 25% from tier 3, 4 and rural areas.
More than 16% parents are already sending their children to physical schools. These are parents of class 10 and 12 students who were allowed to attend classes in hybrid mode, despite the rising infections.
While 11% parents seemed certain about sending children to schools beginning Monday, an equal number was confused about whether or not to send their wards for offline lessons.
Parents surveyed were worried about the Omicron variant's contagious nature and hoped that maximum students get vaccinated.
Schools in Mumbai and Thane will get offline from Monday. In Palghar district, reopening has been allowed for only classes 8-12 from January 27. In Pune, reopening has been delayed by a week. A decision on reopening of physical colleges and universities is also expected soon.