Schools are being stricter in a post-Covid world and sending children back home if they show any sign of illness.
Several schools said children running a temperature or with red eyes or runny nose have been turning up over the past few days. The parents are being told to take the students back home.
Many of those children were sent to school because they had tests, which the parents did not want them to miss, teachers said.
Schools would always discourage parents from sending children to class if they were unwell. Now, they are going a step further and actively identifying unwell children.
“We have always discouraged parents from sending children to school if they are unwell. Now we request parents to take unwell kids back home because whether it’s fever, cough or cold, we would want to contain the spread (of the infection),” said Krishna Damani, trustee, South Point.
Whenever there is an exam, parents tend to send even unwell kids to school after getting them to pop a pill.
“In some cases, parents would inform us of their children being unwell because they were missing exams. We cannot allow them because we would not have so much space to isolate a certain number from each class to appear for a test,” said Rodney Borneo, principal, St Augustine’s Day School.
“If all the unwell children are allowed to sit together it would not be isolation,” he said.
Doctors suggest children suffering from an infection stay at home to prevent spread of the disease.
“We are seeing instances of a viral infection that affects the throat, eyes and induces fever among schoolchildren. Children with such symptoms are advised to stay at home,” said Apurba Ghosh, director, Institute of Child Health.
Ghosh said sending an infected child to school compromises the health of other children, some of whom may be immunocompromised.
Koeli Dey, principal, Sushila Birla Girls’ School, said: “If a child is running a temperature or feeling unwell, we call the parents immediately to take the child back because we do not know what it can lead to. It is always better for a child to go home and receive individualised medical attention if they have fever or anallergy. The school might not be equipped to handle the situation if the condition worsens.”
Terence Ireland, principal, St James’ School, said teachers now are more concerned because of the “tension playing in the back of their minds that it (a fever) could be a sign of something more serious”.
