Assessing the government’s move to reopen the schools in Jammu and Kashmir from March 1 amid the prevailing COVID-19pandemic, Jammu and Kashmir Civil Society Forum (JKCSF) Sunday cautioned the government regarding the health safety of the students and the teachers.
A statement of JKCSF issued here said that the students and teachers who could be badly hit if utmost precautions are not exercised in reopening of schools, JKCSF Chairman Abdul Qayoom Wani said that any hasty decision could prove fatal.
Referring to the news reports about the mutated strains of the novel coronavirus that claim that the new variants of COVID-19 could lead to resurgence of coronavirus cases and bring back pandemic with severe consequences, Wani quoted the Doctors Association Kashmir observations that after the UK variant, South African and Brazilian variants had found their way into India.
“When experts are saying that the new variants are on the move and they can sneak into Kashmir anytime while there has been no vaccination against the virus among students and teachers, how come it is a wise step to push the future of the nation and the builders of the nation to the wall to make them the laboratory tools,” he said.
JKCSF suggests the stakeholders and the policymakers in the government to reconsider the decision of the reopening of schools in this fiery and weary environment of pandemic where it had no ‘space and time’ of stop yet.
“The better options are to continue online classes now that 4G internet is available and students have adopted to the online classes trend,” the JKCSF statement said.