Reopening of educational institutions will spell disaster: Chairman ‘We Volunteers’
Srinagar: With increasing death count and more than a hundred cases being reported per day in J&K and about seven cases every minute in India, the government’s move to open schools in Jammu and Kashmir can prove to be a disaster, Chairperson ‘We Volunteers’, Malik Asif Noor said in a statement here.
He said that with the lockdown and other safety measures being imposed and the experts claiming the peak for Covid-19 is yet to be attained it will be unwise on the part of the government to decide on the reopening of schools around mid June when rest of the states are completely holding back on taking such a decision.
Malik Asif Noor while condemning the government’s decision to reopen schools said that with a pair of hand gloves, reusable face masks, sanitizer and liquid soaps being provided to the students, Covid-19 infection cannot be put at bay.
“Majority of our Government schools have failed to provide even the basic necessities like electricity, safe drinking water and separate toilets for males and females. Most of the schools even do not have a full demarcated and protected boundary and in such a scenario ensuring that Covid-19 virus will not have an impact on the children is closing one’s eyes to the harsh reality,” Asif Noor said.
“It is totally plausible to think about what might be compelling the government to take such step even when the civil secretariat, government offices, banks and even the hospitals are not functioning to the fullest,” he added.
“It’s really naive for the government to think it won’t be a matter of great risk if they reopen the schools,” he said, adding that such a move will also put lakhs of lives at stake as all the family members of school going children can be exposed to the risk of contracting the deadly virus.
“When our health care setup is already burdened how can the government even think of experimenting with opening of educational institutions and putting the lives of general public at risk,” he added.
“If this decision of reopening of educational institutions leads to a wide transmission among the students and their families, our underequipped and insufficient health care system will surely not be able to cope with the emergency,” he said.
“There is no point in jeopardizing the lives of the students when we see the graph of reported Covid-19 cases increasing exponentially. It’s high time that we rethink about this decision. It’s high time for the parents to think about their kids’ health and life and the government too needs to reconsider the decision, because after all, losing an academic year is better than losing a life,” Malik Asif Noor stated.
He said that if the government does not rescind its decision on reopening of educational institutions then ‘We Volunteers’ will have no other option than to approach the court of law and stop the process before it ends up putting the lives of students at risk.
KV News
