No morning alarms, No school bus horns, no playing, no recesses! Look what you have done to our young population.
You creepy virus! Over 154 million school students are heavily impacted due to the massive shutdown of schools and other educational bodies, data revealed by UNESCO.
Schools are not restricted to educating children on ‘how to read, write, and speak’. However, they provide daily nutrition, health facilities, safety devices), mental health support, and psycho-social support; Other responsibilities include counseling students to reduce the percentage of violence, criminal acts, and early pregnancy common in teenagers.
To provide a solution to this problem, the government of different countries decided to reopen schools with compliance with safety guidelines.
Back to School Guidelines Suggested by Experts of UNESCO
Investing in water sanitation and improving the hygiene levels in school corridors/classes.
Teaching students in small groups while adhering to social distancing.
Advise school students to use hand sanitizer and prefer wearing gloves.
Encourage them to use home-made cloth masks that are airy, and promotes the breathing process.
Respiratory droplets are seen as a powerful mode of transmission, which is why doctors preach mask-wearing.
What Experts Suggest?
If your child is traveling through a school bus, use the school bus tracking system. It was to reduce the stress of parents, transport managers, and teachers regarding child safety.
Before we discuss the vital measure taken by experts for helping school authorities in fighting this situation, let’s discuss what experts around the world have to say.
Educational Advancement in Countries Amid Pandemic
Millions of students are now left with one option – temporary online home classes.
Countries like China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran, profoundly impacted by COVID 19, have replaced traditional lecture-based classrooms with digital classrooms.
Students in Hong Kong have now become accustomed to learning at home, via a video conferencing app. Thus, aiding their government in breaking the chain of spread.
Cloud-based learning software, school bus tracking app, video chat apps have seen massive downloads in the year 2020.
Nigerian schools are hosting face-to-face video instruction online classes through Google Classroom and other learning tools.
Similarly, Hong Kong introduced a forum called read together.HK that brags of providing 900+ educational material in the form of videos, book chapters, online assessment paper, and counseling services for free, researched by 60 industry professionals.
From this, we can conclude that the education system embraces innovation; and even the government is taking steps towards the digitalization of education.
Worldwide Effects of COVID on Education & School Students Future
Staying away from school can affect the mental and physical development of the child.
Studies showed that children, with no access to education, are more likely to become pregnant, commit crimes, raise violence, and other malicious acts at an early age.
Moreover, extended lockdown can promote stress and anxiety in youngsters due to the lack of interaction with friends.
School reopening must be safe and consistent with each country’s overall COVID-19 health response, and all reasonable measures taken to protect students, staff, teachers, and their families.
What Measures Are Countries Taking To Reopen School?
Reopening schools has mainly two reasons- researchers prove the virus least impacts school children, and the other is the degradation of education quality.
In the Netherlands, schools cropped the class sizes in half. However, no social distancing was enforced for students under 12 years.
Schools also advised parents to use tracking apps like school bus tracking apps to record their child’s activity.
Quebec (Canada province) reopened many primary schools in May with altered social distancing policies. Schools permitted students to socialize freely, but in groups limited to 6 students per group.
Each group should maintain a 1-meter distance from other groups. At the same time, the gap between teachers and students should be 2 meters.
Denmark formulated creative ways to keep students distanced. After reopening, schools made small groups that have permission to gather during recess.
They also made their lecturers teach in the graveyard to enable fresh air.
Finland kept class size reasonable, ensuring no communication between classes.
What Can Faculty Do After Schools Reopen?
As highlighted by UNESCO, these are the vital points that school teachers should address:
Teachers must plan to reduce the learning gaps formed after a long break to study. They should formulate best learning practices to help students, especially from low-income families.
Students with disabilities, or coming from ethnic or cultural minorities must be given due attention.
Parents should be acknowledged about the safety practices taken by schools to minimize health risks. Schools should also inform parents about educational initiatives and other commitments to gain their trust to send their children.
Teachers should be prepared to take responsibility for child safety and be accountable to parents. Owing to the fact, parents first reach out to class teachers to gather child information.
School Bus tracking can be a solution to track student’s safety and must be recommended by school authorities.
Fleetroot experts have developed a school bus GPS tracking system by keeping social distancing in mind. In this system, parents can track temperature logging and can get social distancing alerts. Parents will get notified whenever their child comes in close contact (2 meters) with other students.
How Can Fleetroot Experts Help Fight COVID 19 Effects?
After intense evaluation of the situation, the experts have come up with a solution that can assure safety at hand.
We developed a school bus tracking software that enables schools to regulate their transport operations. Moreover, parents can get alerts and notification about-
Delays in bus and information about any emergency
Breakdown or Route deviations of bus
Track the real-time location of the bus. (works on GPS)
Bus attendance record of the students
Voice Alerts on Non-compliance of social distancing by students
Temperature logging
Besides, schools can send notifications to parents about the pick and drop time of the students. With this latest school bus tracking software, parents can get reports of drivers such as speed limit, overspeeding, driving pattern, driver punctuality, vehicle utilization reports, etc.
The software works on both mobile and desktops.
With the reopening, several schools have started using this system to ensure students complete safety while traveling via buses.
Honestly, we cannot expect this deadly virus to get destroyed instantly. We have to act smartly and do what the government is advocating.
Now, it’s time to share your perspective!
How is COVID 19 pandemic disrupting your school education? Has your school been closed? Does your school have a reopening plan? Are you going to use security tools like school bus tracking and body temperature measuring after schools reopen?
