Mokokchung, 19 August (MTNews): In a bid to curb the increasing cases of Conjunctivitis (commonly known as Eye Flu) among school-going children, authorities in Dimapur have taken a decisive step to suspend all physical classes in schools across the district. The decision to this effect was made after thorough discussions with officials from the Department of Health & Family Welfare and the Department of School Education and considering the severity of the spread of infection and the number of cases, Deputy Commissioner of Dimapur, Sachin Jaiswal stated in an order.
“The physical classes in the schools shall remain suspended from 21st August, 2023 to 26th August, 2023 to contain the spread of infection among school going children,” the Deputy Commissioner’s order read, issued on 19 August.
Further, during the suspension of physical classes, educational institutions have been urged to explore alternative avenues to ensure continuous learning for their students. The recommendation is for schools to implement online classes, allowing students to continue their education remotely while minimizing the risk of infection.
Kindly allow the schools to remain open: ANPSA
Meanwhile, the All Nagaland Private Schools Association (ANPSA), Central Body, Kohima has maintained that schools in Dimapur are “not having any unmanageable outbreak of eye flu” and that it did not think it necessary to go online or to close physical classes.
“That there is a prevalence of Eye Flu or Conjunctivitis in the State is true. However we have seen that though a few students get infected, they recover fast and therefore there has been no significant number of absentees in the school due to eye flu. We are able to carry on physical classes taking care to adhere to the recommendation of the Health department in preventing the flu,” ANPSA said in a letter to the DC Dimapur.
In this connection, it said that ANPSA Central had conducted a survey of schools “asking schools to report cases of eye flu, if any” as per the verbal direction of Chairman, NBSE. “Many of the schools reported that eye flu was present in their schools but not to an alarming extent. Only a few students, about two or three, were absent daily due to this. There was no problem in continuing physical classes due to this disease. Some schools reported nil prevalence,” it said.
Moreover, ANPSA said that all NBSE (Nagaland Board of School Education) schools are now in the process of conducting Mid Term Exams for Class 12, and some schools are also conducting exams for lower classes. “It will be very difficult for the schools in Dimapur, if we close down for a week. We will not be able to complete our Exams in the given time frame thereby affecting the completion of our syllabus. 99% of schools in the State are affiliated to NBSE,” it said.
Further, ANPSA said that there are also all the Catholic schools in the State which come under NBSE. “These Catholic schools have Common Question Papers for their schools. It will not be possible for them to bring out another Common Question Paper for Dimapur District alone as the exams are slated to begin by 21st August 2023,” it said.
As such, the ANPSA requested the DC Dimapur to “kindly allow the schools to remain open voluntarily so that the exams can go on un-interrupted.”