64% Maharashtra parents do not want to send children to school: Survey

As the schools in Maharashtra will be reopening from Monday onwards, a survey recently conducted shows that around 64% of the parents are unwilling to sent thier children to school.

Maharashtra Government approved to reopen schools from Monday, January 24 on the requests made by the parents. However, now, according to a survey, about 62 per cent of parents in Maharashtra are unwilling to send their children to school from January 24.

The survey was conducted on the online community platform LocalCircle across tier-I, tier-II/III and tier-IV cities of the state that received 4,976 responses. Of the total, 67 per cent of respondents were men, and the remaining 33 per cent women, the survey showed.

"However, 11 per cent of citizens said, Yes (will send from January 24) and 16 per cent said they are already sending their children (to school),” LocalCircles said.

At the same time, it said, 11 per cent did not offer any opinion.

Immediately after the onset of the Omicron-led third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Maharashtra government had on January 8 ordered closure of all schools and colleges in the state till February 15 to contain the spread of the virus.

However, on January 20, the state education minister, contrary to an earlier decision, announced that schools in the state of the 1st-12th standard would reopen from January 24.

While the BMC has allowed schools to reopen in Mumbai, the Maharashtra government has allowed local bodies to take the decision on reopening schools after assessing the Covid-19 situation in their respective areas.