To

Principal

La Martiniere for Girls’, Kolkata

We, the parents of the children of La Martiniere for Girls’, Upper Nursery, would like to thank the principal, the board as well as the entire staff of La Martiniere for Girls’ for effortlessly conducting the school in the online mode and educating the children through the pandemic. All the teachers have been patient and we understand that it would not have been easy to conduct classes from home, as it is not been easy for us parents to step into the shoes of the teacher and act as the educators for our children. 

With the third wave of Covid coming to an end and the new school session starting on April 20th, parents of LMG Upper Nursery are concerned that schools may not reopencompletely from the new session. We have endured this pandemic for almost two years and, at this stage, it is unconscionable to deprive our students of valuable and needed learning in-class. We now have ample data about the devastating impact of school closures on the mental, academic, social, and physical health of kids. There are also numerous studies from WHO and UNICEF proving that schools have little to no impact on covid transmission rates in the community. 

It is a fact that malls, markets, restaurants and cinemas are open at full capacity and schools are shut down. With schools being shut for almost 750 days, these young kids have not had the opportunity to attend school at all. In these formative years when they are learning the basic alphabets, it is affecting their educational base. This is the stage when we want to keep them away from digital screens, but now they have to sit infront of laptops and phones for their classes. Unfortunately, they have only seen their new school once since their admission. Our kids met their teacher for the first time in September 2020 and that too online, at that time they were 3 years old and did not know how to read or type. How could they learn to write and draw online? How could they develop their motor skills online? Now they are 5 years old  and they have hardly got the chance to meet their classmates either. We are really worried about their social development  and  as much as we try to build social interaction, there's no place like school. 

All the kids are excited to start school, especially when they hear the benefits of the school environment from their other friends across the city and the country. Covid is not likely to disappear anytime soon and we have to move on and deal with it as best as possible, we must allow children to have a normal school. 

According to a report by the United Nations, India closed its schools for 82 weeks (574 days ) between March 2020 and October 2021. Uganda closed classrooms for 83 weeks. But LMG has closed schools further for an extra 24 weeks making it the longest closure in the world. 

UNICEF has called for schools to reopen and in a statement, has said, "We need bold action to enable every child to return to school.” The World Health Organization (WHO) said school closures have "clear negative impacts on child health, education and development." All children have the right to education. 

All play schools, birthday parties, group classes, activities, vacations are on, but the children continue to stay at homefrom school. We urge the school to open for the kids full time in compliance of the Order of the School Education Department, Govt. of W.B. (Vide Memo No. 41-SSE/2022 dated 14/02/2022), that requests all classes of primary schools to reopen with effect from 16/02/2022 from Monday to Saturday in a week maintaining all Covid norms and protocols. 

The total country case load as on 22nd march 2022 stands at 23,913 only and daily positivity has declined to 0.28%. Therefore, we must educate the children, who are the future of our society and not deprive them from a well-roundededucation. 

Our children lack a voice and lack a vote, therefore , us parents have come together to join hands to be their voice. We urge the school to look into the best interest of the school as well as the students studying in it. The parents will always be supportive. 

Warm regard and Full Support, 

Concerned parents of children studying in Upper Nursery