'Country's future at stake': Anand Mahindra, Rishad Premji highlight need to reopen schools

Business tycoons Anand Mahindra and Rishad Premji on July 28 highlighted the need to reopen schools across the country, which have remained closed for students in the lower grades for more than a year due to the onset of COVID-19 pandemic.

Both the industry leaders called for focused measures, including vaccination of school staff at the earliest, to enable the return of children to offline classrooms.

"This is now critical. We need to focus on getting all schools reopened. All staff to get vaccinated on priority to facilitate this Reopening. Very simply, the country’s future is at stake," Anand Mahindra, the Chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra Group, tweeted.

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Along with his tweet, Anand Mahindra attached a statement issued by NGO A.T.E Chandra Foundation, which said that children are among those most adversely affected due to the COVID-19-induced restrictions.

"Children have been HUGE victims of the pandemic with most schools being shut for ~16 months! Damage not just academic but also socio-emotional - worsened by the digital divide. Govts need to URGENTLY focus on re-opening schools/colleges by vaccinating ALL employees (sic)," A.T.E Chandra Foundation had tweeted on July 27.

This is now critical. We need to focus on getting all schools reopened. ALL staff to get vaccinated on priority to facilitate this Reopening. Very simply, the country’s future is at stake… @narendramodi @dpradhanbjp https://t.co/41RMpkD6MF

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) July 28, 2021

Rishad Premji, while retweeting Anand Mahindra's tweet, said lessons must be learnt from countries which have reopened schools for children.

"We absolutely must open schools. The damage of them staying closed is now worse then schools opening. Lots of lessons to take from other countries that have done this successfully," said Premji, the chairman of Wipro Limited.

Notably, offline classes have resumed in the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel, among few other nations. The countries which have opted to permit the functioning of schools have inoculated a major portion of their population with the vaccines against COVID-19.

In India, a number of state governments had resumed classes for students in the higher grade in late 2020 and earlier this year. However, the onset of second wave forced the closure of schools again. With the second round of pandemic subsiding, a number of state governments including Punjab and Gujarat, have resumed classes for students in the higher grades in a restricted manner.