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Due to Covid-19 impacted disruption, Bangladesh government had temporarily shut all the educational institutes down in March 2020 though it was prolonged until September 2021. After continuous concern of UNICEF, when government considered about reopening of schools for in-person classes amid the pandemic, many parents were found to be worried regarding the status of school preparedness.
Objective
The purpose of this study is to investigate compliance status of school preparedness as per UNICEF's guidelines and its effect on children's schooling decision during the pandemic.
Methods
The study considers 30 primary schools and 310 parents by employing a simple random sampling technique in Dhaka city. Along with the descriptive analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) and a logistic regression model have been executed to come up the goal of the study.
Results
The findings explore that classroom density, level of preparedness on health and hygiene, social distancing and awareness, reporting and referral mechanism, communication with school authority, and school arrival on foot have a positive association with the likelihood of parents’ decision for sending their children back to school. On the other hand, monthly expenditure and distance from school to home have a negative relationship with the likelihood on sending children to in-person schooling.
Conclusion
The level of school preparedness greatly affects the parent's decision for children's physical schooling during pandemic. So, to keep mental stability of the children amidst any pandemic, the authorities should take care on school preparedness to ensure physical schooling of the children.
The World Health Organization (WHO) had declared the acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) disease as a pandemic within two weeks of the virus’ identification in China.
Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: overview and rapid systematic review of guidelines and recommendations on preventive measures and the management of cases.
Compared to the first wave, the second wave of Covid-19 was even more devastating because the number of infection and deaths rate worldwide has been created new records everyday.
Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: overview and rapid systematic review of guidelines and recommendations on preventive measures and the management of cases.
As total cases of infections were speeding fast, in order to reduce transmission, government called a national shut down by closing all the mills, factories, offices, business organizations and industries along with all the educational institutions.
Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: overview and rapid systematic review of guidelines and recommendations on preventive measures and the management of cases.
The schools, colleges and universities of nearly 200 countries including Bangladesh were closed by March 2020 which has smashed the schooling system of the world since Second World War (WWII). Closure of educational institutes affected more than 1.5 billion learners worldwide.
Moreover, the shutdown period of the educational institutions was prolonged time to time in Bangladesh for assuring greater safety of the students. Thus almost 30 million students with 1 million teachers in only primary and secondary level of education were affected in Bangladesh.
Moreover, since early marriage, women exploitation, sexual harassment and premature pregnancy drastically increased during the pandemic, it created a significant negative influence on children's schooling decision, especially for female students.
Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: overview and rapid systematic review of guidelines and recommendations on preventive measures and the management of cases.
However, most of the teachers and students had limited knowledge and experience of remote instructions and limited access to technical tools (especially the marginalized) in most of the developing countries.
Thus, the pandemic has exacerbated the existing inequalities in educational system. In Bangladesh, less than 60% of total population uses internet on a regular basis again with a lacking of stable internet speed which also disrupts the success of smooth online courses.
Though parents help their children in online courses, they are likely to learn less from online courses in comparison with in-person learning and in most of the cases the children experience physical abuse while staying at home.
Actually, the positive impact of school closures on the disease transmission is not properly documented yet, but the negative effect of it on children's education and wellbeing is very clear from the discussion.
Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: overview and rapid systematic review of guidelines and recommendations on preventive measures and the management of cases.
Prolonged school closure during Covid-19 increased the threat of drop out since it disrupted the students from the access to essential school-based services such as immunization, school feeding, nutrition programs, physical and mental health support and so on.
Some of the schools that reopened their in-person instructions in the USA message insights that schools had little contribution to increase community transmission and there was generally a similar rate of infection among teachers and non-teachers.
So, the government and school systems had been grappling to reopen the schools safely and effectively in order to rendering the students, quality education with utmost safety measures during Covid-19.
Parents were also highly concerned about sending their children back to the school and were trying to be updated by the cautious measures taken by the schools during that pandemic so that they can take best decision to send their children in school physically. Realizing the harmful effects of long school closure on students' learning and mental issues, Bangladesh government took decision to reopen the schools in September 2021.
At that stage, the classes were being conducted only once in a week for each grade. It beckoned the authorities to take safety measures and implement them for safe school reopening.
Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: overview and rapid systematic review of guidelines and recommendations on preventive measures and the management of cases.
Everything was supposed to be normalized but a new threat of Omicron, detected in December 2021 in Bangladesh, was probably been creating a blockade to come up the process. This variant of Covid-19 was even more deadly because it was found to be 4.2 times more transmissible than that of the previous variant.
So, more actions were needed to be taken for mitigating the risk of community transmission by limiting school-related activities such as: sports and competition practices that may have higher chance of spreading the disease.
The readiness of the teachers and school authorities to adapt to new educational approaches and their preparedness for controlling and implementing infection prevention measures had been the most essential issues to be considered in this case.
Moreover, the capacity of the schools and density of students in the classroom for minimizing the risk of spreading the disease through social distancing, water, sanitation, hygiene and cleaning practices also needed to be encountered.
Multisectoral Checklist for School Re-openings and School-Based Nutrition in the Context of COVID-19 Prepared by: UNICEF and World Food Programme Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Offices Multisectoral Checklist for School Re-openings and School Based. 2020 July
The present study seeks to reveal the level of compliance of the school with UNICEF guidelines and to explore how school preparedness affects the parents for their children's in-person schooling decision during Covid-19 in Bangladesh.
High density, low consciousness and high poverty lead the commuters of this city highly susceptible to Covid-19 infection. Hence, Dhaka city has been purposively considered as the study area. From metropolitan area, Pallabi thana was purposively selected because in that area people of all sorts of professions including a significant number of garments worker live there. So, the authors assumed that samples from that area might represent the actual scenario of schools and their stakeholders comprising different social status. There were 29 schools under MPO (Monthly Pay Order) scheme and several private primary schools (the actual number was unknown). A significant number of them, 30 primary schools covering both the public and private, were selected (Fig. 1). During Covid-19, to survey the status of school preparedness was kind of informally restricted by the government authority. Since, World Vision Bangladesh had collaboration with those schools of that area for implementation of green school movement program, wash program and child protection awareness program, the authors were able to somehow manage those school authority regarding collections of follow up data from those school. Besides, from different classes of those schools, the authors collected the list of students and their contact address. Then, from the selected schools, a total of 310 parents, selected randomly, were interviewed in such a way that at least two students from each class could represent in our sample.
Fig. 1Map of selected primary schools of Dhaka metropolitan city.
To address the study objective, authors have collected data from school authority about school preparedness and then interviewed parents to know the decision of sending their children to school. Data was collected in the period between government's announcement of school reopening and actual reopening date of the schools on September 12, 2021.
2.2 Outcome variable
The authors prepared an index of the preparedness status for the sample schools. Then the school preparedness indexed score was informed to the parents to know their decision on sending their children to school. Here, the outcome variable is a binary response by the parents on whether they are willing to send their children to school amid Covid-19, given the preparedness status of the concerned school.
2.3 Explanatory variables
The variables those represent the preparedness status of the schools, the hygiene practice of the children within their family (indexed value) and some socio-economic and institutional features such as: father's education (years of schooling), monthly family expenditure (in BDT), distance of the school to home (kilometer), type of school (0 = Private; 1 = Government), classroom density (student per meter squared) and so on are the explanatory variables in this study. Mode of transportation (1 = School transport; 2 = Own transport; 3 = Public; 4 = Walking) have also been considered as a strong determinant for parents in making decisions about their children's schooling due to community transmission of Covid-19.
2.4 School preparedness items
A five-point Likert scale has been deployed to explore the composite preparedness score of the schools. Following the guidelines of UNICEF, several important statements within three clusters namely i) health and hygiene (7 issues), ii) social distancing and awareness (9 issues), and iii) and reporting, referral mechanism (7 issues) have been enclosed. All the 23 statements (presented in Table 2) are classified through five-point Likert scale on the basis of their preparation level. On the basis of the given information, an index was generated about preparedness of the school.
2.5 Hygiene instructions items
As the students of primary school are not matured enough, parents are responsible to aware or teach kids about safety issues. The research, measures how parents teach their children about the etiquette of hygiene and cleaning. We identified 9 safety and hygiene issues (presented in Table 3) based on parents' concern for safe school maneuvers amid Covid-19 along with their expectations and suggestions for successful schooling mechanisms. Parents' hygiene instructions towards children were also considered in a 5-point Likert scale from 1 = don't instruct at all; to 5 = instruct children very frequently.
2.6 Analytical frameworks
This study used descriptive statistics like frequency and percentage to represent socio-demographic as well as awareness related characteristics of the school going children and their parents and institutional safety measurements of the schools. Also, authors applied principal component analysis (PCA) on a large set of components in order to identify the most influential preparedness factors which affect in-person schooling decision. Moreover, KMO test had been calculated to identify the reliable factors.
A logistic regression has been performed to examine the association between socio-demographic variables and the preparedness score of the schools and children's in-person schooling decision. In this case, children's schooling decision is the dependent variable with a binary response, “yes = 1” or “no = 0”. A bunch of explanatory variables including predicted preparedness score of the factors had been considered. Then the results were estimated by applying the data to the following equation (1).
Here, is the odds ratio, is the probability of sending children to schools; where 1 = Yes, 0 = No; (1- Pi) is the probability for not sending the children to schools and Zi represents the vector of explanatory variables and ui is the error term.
Authors executed two logistic regression models where components of preparedness score were added stepwise. The logic behind adding them stepwise was to check out the goodness of fit of the components and their magnitude of influence on the outcome variable. The models were analyzed with the assumption of 95% confidence interval (CI). Stata (version 13), software was used for statistical estimation of this study.
3. Results
3.1 Parental and institutional characteristics
Table 1 describes summary statistics specifically socio-economic characteristics of the parents and institutional information of the typical primary schools in Dhaka city. By analyzing the data, the study reveals that monthly income of households living in urban areas of Bangladesh is insufficient to cover every necessity such as health and education.
Table 1Parental and institutional information of the respondents.
The summary statistics shows that 60% of the surveyed schools are government schools and the rest are private. The classroom density of the schools, reports that only about 2 square meters of space is allotted for every student in the classroom with 38 students per teacher. Additionally, more than 90% parents preferred to send their children into classrooms on feet rather than public transport during Covid-19 to avoid the transmission of the virus by public gatherings.
In addition, to mitigate the transmission of Covid-19 and reopen the schools safely, the baseline were set to dig out the preparedness level of the schools in Dhaka city.
The average preparedness score of the school authority is almost 60 out of 92 while the minimum score is only 14 which indicates the capricious nature of school authority. In this study institutional information suggests that the school authority had more scope to improve their school preparedness status to minimize the threat of Covid-19.
3.2 Primary school preparedness status
Regarding health and hygiene, the result shows that about 47% school had no arrangement to check student's body temperature at all. Only 43% schools were strongly prepared for controlling students for not touching certain items such as remote, light switches projectors and other educational instruments. Authors noticed satisfactory information that more than 83% schools were strongly prepared for ensuring students wear mask during school time.
About 70% school arranged the supplies of hand sanitizer and mask in defense of health and hygiene in Dhaka city (Table 2). Proper management of cleaning and disinfecting desks, computer keyboards as well as hands on learning items were strictly adhered to above 55% school authority.
In case of social distancing and awareness, authors explored that there was inadequacy of rigid preparation in case of social distancing in Dhaka. About 40–50% school authority lagged behind to maintain social distancing in the high zones like different entrance, prohibiting of large gatherings, setting up school starting or closing time by grade in the study area. Only about 37% schools had separate entrances, 40% schools fully maintained 1 meter gap between desk, where nearly 47 schools trained teachers and employees for controlling and managing covid-19 in Dhaka city. Despite 60 schools didn't have 1 meter gap between desks, about 57% schools maintained social distance in the seating arrangement. About 57% schools also updated covid-19 information to the employees, students and teachers.
In third phase, the study is objectively presented the reporting and the referral mechanism of the primary school authorities in Dhaka. Authors examined that the maximum score came in the waiting room issue where about 64% schools had full preparedness of separating students with covid-19 symptoms. In case of taking steps for preventing the spread of the virus and sending notices to all parents at the time of finding new Covid-19 case, only 60% schools had full preparation.
Above all, about 45–65% school authority in Dhaka were totally planned regarding their preparation. From the above analysis it was observed that the preparedness status of the school authorities in Dhaka might not be able to keep up the pace with other countries which were successfully managed all precautions to reopen the school after a long-time closure. However, in the context of Bangladesh there was still scope for further improvements in all the three cases.
3.3 Parents’ instruction to children about hygiene
Table 3 basically shows how seriously parents have instructed their children about hygiene issues. Following the guidelines derived from UNICEF, selected statements were picked up and divided into 5-point Likert scale (1 = do not instruct at all to 5 = frequently train children). Authors found that about 72% parents frequently instruct their children to wear mask when they go outside. The next highest response was ‘encouraging wearing clean dress’ (around 66%), and ‘encouraging to use hand sanitizer’ (52%).
About 45% parents motivated their youngster to avoid large gatherings ensuring social distancing. Almost 38% parents publicized the devastating impact of the Covid-19 in front of their children so that the tendency of practicing the rules of health and hygiene could be escalated including no intake of roadside food (Table 3).
3.4 Determinants of Children's schooling decision during Covid-19
The study generated four exogenous variables on preparedness by conducting principal component analysis (PCA) namely preparedness on health and hygiene; social distancing and awareness; reporting and referral mechanism; as well as self-preparedness on hygiene
which is presented in Table 2. Table 4 estimates the final outcome to make decision regarding sending children into classrooms when schools reopen in Dhaka city after 543 days of Covid-19 shutdown.
Table 2Preparedness status of the primary school authorities.
Source: Author's compilation, 2021
N
R
SW
P
SP
Freq.
%
Freq.
%
Freq.
%
Freq
%
Freq.
%
Statements of regulation on health and hygiene
H1. Cleaning of school buildings and surrounding campus
1
3.3
4
13.3
7
23.3
18
60.0
H2.Arranging hand washing system with soap
2
6.7
6
20.0
22
73.3
H3.Providing cleaning and disinfecting supplies (mask, hand sanitizer)
1
3.3
6
20.0
2
6.7
21
70.0
H4.Ensuring using mask at school
1
3.3
1
3.3
3
10.0
25
83.3
H5.Cleaning and disinfecting desks and other materials
4
13.3
1
3.3
3
10.0
5
16.7
17
56.7
H6.Limiting the touching of certain items (light switches)
5
16.7
2
6.7
3
10.0
7
23.3
13
43.3
H7.Checking temperature of the students before entry at school bus
14
46.7
3
10.0
1
3.3
3
10.0
9
30.0
Statements of regulation on social distancing and awareness
D1.Creating floor markings to maintain a safe distance.
4
13.3
6
20.0
7
23.3
4
13.3
9
30.0
D2.Ensuring social distance in seating arrangement
2
6.7
4
13.3
7
23.3
17
56.7
D3.Increasing desk spacing (at least 1 meter between desks)
5
16.7
3
10.0
5
16.7
5
16.7
12
40.0
D4.Arranging of different entrances
8
26.7
3
10.0
4
13.3
4
13.3
11
36.7
D5.Having proper facility of ventilating rooms as much as possible
1
3.3
1
3.3
5
16.7
5
16.7
18
60.0
D6.Prohibiting large groups of students, faculty and family members
2
6.7
3
10.0
3
10.0
6
20.0
16
53.3
D7.Managing school starting/closing times differently
3
10.0
3
10.0
2
6.7
7
23.3
15
50.0
D8.Arranging of training regarding Covid-19 for teachers and employees
5
16.7
1
3.3
3
10.0
7
23.3
14
46.7
D9.Disseminating Covid-19 updated information to all
3
10.0
2
6.7
4
13.3
4
13.3
17
56.7
Statements of regulation on reporting and referral mechanism
RS1.Arranging a waiting room for children symptoms with Covid-19
4
13.3
4
13.3
1
3.3
2
6.7
19
63.3
R2.Taking steps for preventing the spread of the virus.
4
13.3
2
6.7
4
13.3
2
6.7
18
60.0
R3.Providing the sick student with a medical mask
2
6.7
1
3.3
5
16.7
5
16.7
17
56.7
R4.Screening daily body temperature on entry into the building for all
5
16.7
2
6.7
4
13.3
4
13.3
15
50.0
R5.Separating sick students and staff from others
3
10.0
1
3.3
4
13.3
8
26.7
14
46.7
R6.Sending notices to all parents at the time of finding new Covid-19 case
1
3.3
2
6.7
2
6.7
7
23.3
18
60.0
R7.Checking Covid-19 test report for infected students
6
20.0
3
10.0
4
13.3
2
6.7
15
50.0
Note: N = prepared not at all, R = Rarely prepared, SW=Somewhat prepared, P=Prepared, SP= Strongly prepared, Freq. = Frequency, the number of observations is 30 for each statement.
Model 1 shows that if the density within classroom increases by 1 square, parents were more likely to send their children to schools (p < 0.01). This estimate was consistent with the findings in China, where reducing class size from 50 to 30 students, encouraged parents to send their children to school. The country successfully reopened school in March 2021.
If the school authority gives effort to prepare for health and hygiene status up to the mark, the parents are about 2 times more likely to send back their children to the classrooms (p < 0.01). Preparedness for social distancing and awareness also influences the decision to send a child to school positively (p < 0.01). Likewise, preparedness for reporting and referral mechanisms results in parents’ being about 3 times more likely to send their children to school (p < 0.01).
Expenditure and distance from school to home were found to be negatively associated with parents' schooling decision in the study area. In addition, the result suggested that parents were less likely to send their children to school if school weren't used to communicate and update parents through mobile phone call. The findings were found consistent with other studies in the same issue.
This study found that guardians were 2 times more likely to send their children to school if they would live in short distance from school and their children could go to school by walking rather than using public transport (p < 0.10).
4. Discussion
With a view to mitigating Covid-19 related infection, in Singapore, a cartoon hero named Soaper-5 was created to inspire school going children about hand-washing.
Although no such system innovation was found in developing countries like Bangladesh, still almost 73% school took action to ensure that students wash their hands regularly. In Chinese schools where body temperature was checked at least twice a day, the study found that the facilities of health screening was no longer at half the number of the same in Dhaka. However, the study estimated that almost 73% school was found taking action to ensure that students wash their hands regularly since it is a prime concern for safety. Only 30% of the selected schools fully followed floor marking to ensure safe distance where Denmark and Chinese authorities arranged special drill to control the flow of traffic from the entrance to classroom.
Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: overview and rapid systematic review of guidelines and recommendations on preventive measures and the management of cases.
The study explored that the school authorities and parents believe in putting on surgical mask for reducing the infection rate up to 90–95% which is consistent with WHO guideline.
Gyanwali P, Nepal Health Research Council in Collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Population Presents the Study “Compliance with SMS Measures against COVID-19 in Kathmandu” This Research Was Conducted to Examine Compliance of SMS Measures (Use of Face Mask, Practicing Proper Hand Hygiene with Use of the Sanitizer/hand Wasting and Social Distancing) on Public Places of Kathmandu Valley.
Moreover, it observed that in primary school of Dhaka, the students were less prone to follow the health and hygiene etiquettes whereas 42% Chinese children had the knowledge about the etiquettes of coughing and touching the certain items at school.
Hand hygiene, mask-wearing behaviors and its associated factors during the COVID-19 epidemic: a cross-sectional study among primary school students in Wuhan, China.
Less than 50% schools of Dhaka City of Bangladesh, unlike the schools in Norway and Denmark, could follow the identical guidelines to restrict the family members inside the school premises, separate entry and departure time by class stratum and manage multiple entrances to abide by the rules of social distancing conveniently.
However, children's safety against the outbreak of Covid-19 does not only relies on the preparation of school but also depends on how much the parents have been able to teach or train the children about health and hygiene. The study found a high concern of the parents toward their children's health and hygiene. Same as the parents of other countries, about 50% of the parents in Bangladesh strictly forbid their children to avoid the street or roadside food thinking over their safety issues.
Like the parents of Denmark, Bangladeshi parents also prioritize the practice and initiative of the school authorities to maintain social distance between students.
Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: overview and rapid systematic review of guidelines and recommendations on preventive measures and the management of cases.
Above all, for resending the child back to schools, parents of Bangladesh demanded for security of health issues from the school authorities. Preparedness score, classroom density, transportation system, information and communication with parents are the main concern of the parents. This concept is generalized for all the parents under the same scenario who have school going children because they all feel anxious for the same safety measures for their children. Especially, the result of this study might be generalized for the developing countries like Bangladesh, who have similar type of socio-economic status, demographic characteristics, political culture and similar type of amenities in school.
4.1 Significance of the study
The strength of this study makes it much more affluent since it explores the extent of school readiness according to the guidelines of UNICEF and investigates the effect of school readiness on children's future schooling decisions during Covid-19; that was very crucial and being discussed on the eve of the concurrent pandemic situation. Moreover, this study is beneficial to provide a generalized idea to the policy makers and practitioners in formulating a policy to take back all children in physical schooling during any pandemic like Covid 19 in developing countries like Bangladesh where population density is high and amenities in school is low.
4.2 Limitations
This study would carry more value if it could be able to ensure representation of respondents from different regions and different types of educational institutions of the country. Besides, it would be more meaningful if this study could monitor the follow up of school preparedness status after certain period of physical school opening. There is still scope to do do such type of study by taking evaluation and opinions from the students who really face the situation. Also, more appropriate evaluations can be possible by developing scientific protocols.
5. Conclusion
To explore effective policies to reduce school drop and to take back students during pandemic period, the study figures out positive correlation between the preparedness score of the schools and the schooling decisions of the parents, since the high preparedness of the school authorities lessens the parents' concern about their children's safety at school. Hence, during any pandemic, to ensure take back of children physically, collaboration of school authorities with public health agencies and community people as well as monitoring are urgent to develop the protocol of school preparedness along with safe transportation facilities and vaccination for all staffs and students. Thus, parents might be confident enough for safety to decide regarding sending their children to school physically, and therefore the negative effect of pandemic period on learning and mental health of children could be overcome.
Ethical approval
This study was conducted with formal ethical approval from the Khulna University Ethical Clearance Committee (Reference No. KUECC-2022/02/04). The participants responded anonymously to the interview under the assurance of the confidentiality of the collected information, and the right to revoke participation without prior justification, provided detailed information of the research purpose.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Declaration of competing interest
None.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the concerned participants responded and the enumerators. Also, our thankful gratitude goes to the anonymous reviewers and the editors for their valuable comments.
References
Bestiantono D.S.
Agustina P.Z.R.
Cheng T.-H.
How students' perspectives about online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic?.
Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic: overview and rapid systematic review of guidelines and recommendations on preventive measures and the management of cases.
Multisectoral Checklist for School Re-openings and School-Based Nutrition in the Context of COVID-19 Prepared by: UNICEF and World Food Programme Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Offices Multisectoral Checklist for School Re-openings and School Based. 2020 July (Available from:)
Gyanwali P, Nepal Health Research Council in Collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Population Presents the Study “Compliance with SMS Measures against COVID-19 in Kathmandu” This Research Was Conducted to Examine Compliance of SMS Measures (Use of Face Mask, Practicing Proper Hand Hygiene with Use of the Sanitizer/hand Wasting and Social Distancing) on Public Places of Kathmandu Valley.
Hand hygiene, mask-wearing behaviors and its associated factors during the COVID-19 epidemic: a cross-sectional study among primary school students in Wuhan, China.
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