Students staying away from school or being sent back home because they are running a temperature is still common, said heads of several schools.
At least four or five students are being sent back home every day because of fever or a feeling of being unwell during the course of the day, said the school heads.
It is almost three to four weeks that this spell is continuing in schools in the city.
Schools are receiving leave applications from students and their parents, citing fever, cough and cold.
The institutes are asking them to be back only after complete recovery.
Several schools have sent notices to parents to not send children to school if they have a temperature, cough and cold.
“There are students we are having to send back because they are not feeling well during the course of the day. Teachers are calling up parents so that students
are escorted back home," said Anjana Saha, the principal of Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
Saha said that cases are not just limited to fever but also vomiting and not feeling well.
“We are getting cases of both Covid and viral fever. But in both cases students should stay back at home,” said Apurba Ghosh, the director of the Institute of Child Health.
“I believe schools should continue but parents should not send children who are sick to school,” he said.
Teachers said in some cases perhaps students are not showing any symptoms in the morning but are feeling unwell during mid-day.
“On average, we are sending six to seven kids back every day. Simultaneously, there is a large section of students who are absent because of symptoms,” said Satabdi Bhattacharjee, the principal of The Newtown School.
The phenomenon of sending children to school despite they being unwell is because both parents and students feel they would miss out on their tests and timely submission of assignments.
It is important for schools to assure parents that they are flexible enough and the child would not be penalised, said some parents.
Some schools have been sending out repeated reminders to parents.
“We in the past have introduced a system of medical benefit for students. If a student is unwell and there is a five or 10-mark test, they are allowed to redo it,” said Terence Ireland, principal of St James’ School.
South Point, which had started a four-day week for students of Classes I to V a fortnight back, has decided to continue the same format for the next week too.
“Some teachers in the primary are still unwell and not attending school. It would be difficult to manage the children in their absence,” said Krishna Damani, trustee of the school.
At Julien Day School, Kalyani, students who are sending leave applications are being asked to join only after they have completely recovered.
