88 percent of parents want to wait few weeks before sending children to school, 63 want virtual schooling to continue: Survey

A total of 88 per cent parents said they would wait for a few weeks and then decide about sending their kids to school, while 63 per cent want virtual schooling to continue in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a nation wide survey carried out recently.

Some 72 per cent parents said they would wait for a weeks and then send their wards to schools, while 21 per cent guardians said they would like to send their child to school right away, according to the survey carried out among parents by Kangaroo Kids Education Limited (KKEL) with their brand Billabong High International Schools (BHIS) and Kangaroo Kids International Preschools (KK center). However, 49 per cent parents were hesitant about sending the child to school. The objective of the survey was to get feedback on the virtual schooling programme and parents' expectations on school resumption post lockdown.

Of the 973 parents surveyed, 69 per cent showed satisfaction towards virtual schooling, five per cent were unsatisfied and one per cent extremely unsatisfied, whereas 20 per cent were neutral and five per cent were other, the report said. There were many suggestions from parents like making virtual classes more interactive, slowing the pace of teaching, too many kids at one time, online tests to be added for evaluation, review concepts taught once a week, sessions to be shorter.

There were such 72 suggestions given by the parents to school. The parents have also requested schools to enforce virtual meeting etiquette and punitive action against students willfully disrupting the class. Introduction of 5-10 minutes of eye/hand exercise for children to help cope with screen time better. Asked to rank top five precautions that schools should take after reopening, the parents stressed on hygiene and sanitization, social distancing, elimination of overcrowding, precautionary measures like thermal screening and alternate day schooling.