School attendance in India may drop by 14% due to Omicron: survey

Schools in India are likely to see a 14% drop in students attending in-person classes due to concerns sparked by 'Omicron', the new variant of coronavirus, according to a nationwide survey.

The findings of the survey which was conducted by online platform LocalCircles indicate that the number of parents not sending their children to school are likely to rise.

"The survey, which received 15,875 responses from parents residing in 308 districts of India, finds that schools in the country are likely to see a 14 per cent drop in students attending in-person classes," the online platform said

It mentioned that doctors in South Africa, where the 'Omiron' variant was first reported, have found a higher number of Covid cases of the new variant in the population aged under 25 years.

The World Health Organisation has designated the new SARS-Cov-2 variant as a 'variant of concern'.

According to the survey findings, 58% of parents will be sending their children for in-person classes till this week.

The remaining 32% are parents mostly with younger children and for about 10 per cent of parents, schools that their children go to have not resumed in-person classes yet, it said.

Furthermore, of the 58% of parents sending children to school, 14% will stop doing so because of the Omicron threat.

"While no case of Omicron has been traced in India yet, once the first case is reported in India, another 5% of parents are likely to stop sending children to school. Once multiple cases are reported another 5% are likely to do so leaving only 34 per cent of parents still sending children to school," according to the survey

"Another 10% of parents will take the call of stopping in-person school for their children only when Omicron case is detected in their district and once several cases are detected in their district, almost all parents are likely to stop sending children,' it said.