62% of parents in Maharashtra are unwilling to send their children to schools from Jan 24th

January 22, 2022, New Delhi: The Government of Maharashtra has announced the reopening of schools from January 24th, reversing its earlier decision to allow schools to operate only after February 15th. 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 situation in their respective areas. However, students will not be forced to attend physical classes where schools reopen. In cities, like Pune and Aurangabad, schools have been decided to be kept shut while classes continue in the online mode.

Maharashtra reported on Friday 48,270 COVID cases from 2,05,938 tests conducted and there were 37 related deaths. The Test Positivity Rate (TPR) in the state continues to remain high at 23.4%. With children under 15 being unvaccinated and between 15-18 only partially vaccinated and the highly transmissible nature of Omicron, many parents are concerned about sending children for in-person school. In the community disucssions, many of them have highlighted long term implications of COVID as well and the need for in-person schools to only start when test positivity rates fall to 5% or lower.

LocalCircles has been closely tracking parents’ willingness to send their children to attend in-person classes in school at a national and state level since the pandemic started. Amidst Maharashtra’s announcement to reopen schools, LocalCircles has once again gone back to parents to understand their willingness to send their ward to attend classes at school in from January 24th. The survey received 4,976 responses from residents of Maharashtra from all districts. 67% respondents were men while 33% respondents were women. 44% respondents were from tier 1, 31% from tier 2 and 25% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

62% parents of school going children surveyed in Maharashtra are unwilling to send children to school from Jan 24th

The survey asked citizens, “As the Government opens in-person schools across Maharashtra from Jan 24th, do you plan to send your children or grandchildren to school?” In response, the majority of 62% of parents of school chidren in Maharashtra said “No”, indicting that they are unwilling to send their children to school from Jan 24th. However, 11% of citizens said, “Yes, will send from Jan 24th” and 16% said “Already sending our children.” 11% did not have an opinion. This question in the survey received 4,976 responses.

In summary, 62% of parents of school-going children surveyed in Maharashtra are unwilling to send their children to school from Jan 24th amidst a surge of COVID cases and high test positivity rate between 20-25% in the state.

LocalCircles will share the findings of this survey with the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, so citizen pulse is taken into account for Maharashtra as well as it used as a reference as other states look at reopening schools.