As the government has started reopening schools on a voluntary basis, the number of parents willing to send their children to school has dropped even more. As per to the latest report by LocalCircles – a community social media platform — 71 per cent of parents surveyed across India is not willing to send their kids to school while nine per cent were unsure about it.

According to the survey only 28 per cent of parents are in the favor of schools to reopen in the calendar year 2020 before December 31, while 34 per cent feel they should only open in the next academic year or April 2021.

As per the reports by LocalCircles the number of parents willing to send their children to schools has dropped from 23 per cent in August to 20 per cent in September. Due to the swathes of Covid-19 cases pouring out rapidly and the upcoming festive season, 32 per cent parents stated that schools should open till December 31, while 34 per cent stated that the government should not open schools for this academic year – which is till March/April 2021. Only seven per cent were in favor of reopening schools from October 1.

Apart from the upcoming festivals in October and November, parents in North India, especially Delhi-NCR are concerned about the upcoming smog season. Last year, after the PM 2.5 touched 900 in Delhi and NCR cities, 74 per cent parents had demanded that the government announces a ‘smog break’ for schools from November 1 -20 each year.

The total number of coronavirus infection in India as per today are 62, 25,764. Of the total, as many as 97,497 people have lost their lives due to the contagion while 9, 40,441 cases are still active in the country. Schools and other educational institutes across India have been shut since mid-March due to the pandemic.