Queen Mary's School in Delhi's Tis Hazari area decided to postpone exams for classes 9 and 11 and closed campus for a week after a student tested positive for COVID-19.
The school will remain shut from March 02, 2021 to March 06, 2021 and exams for classes 9 to 11 will be conducted in online mode after protests from parents. As per a communique from the school, the students will have to submit COVID-19 negative reports to their class teachers on March 08, 2021.
The parents of a student who allegedly tested COVID-19 positive said in a video shared on social media, "My daughter came to school and there was no social distancing. She is now sick and she is at home... The school has put so many lives at stake. They made 300 children sit in an auditorium."
School principal Ritu P Solomon refuted these allegations and told Hindustan Times, "The school is taking all Covid-19 related precautions."
Another official said that they had asked students to provide their COVID-19 negative reports since it is the only way to know about their health as of now. The official added they can't take the risk of offline classes with a mere undertaking.
Mother of a class 9 student expressed apprehensions about the safety of her child mentioned to the daily, "The school should either shift the exams to the online mode or postpone them till the situation becomes normal. What difference can they make by closing the campus just for a week?"
Parents have been urging the Delhi government to provide students an option to give exams in either online or offline mode.
Delhi Parents Association president Aparajita Gautam told the daily, "We have been repeatedly writing to the Delhi government requesting it to direct private schools to give students the option of giving their exams either online or offline. The government should now take the case of this school into consideration and take a decision."
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