COVID – 19 Safety Rules at School Classroom

The global Covid -19 pandemic has affected the world and changed everyone’s life. Offices opted for work from home while schools adopted online learning as a new method of teaching. Pandemic isn’t over and now it has more challenges for everyone. Children returning back to school is a nightmare for parents, it comes with a great risk of exposing children to the virus. With a few simple tips and following precautions, the risk of spreading the virus can be reduced. Here is a blog to help you with Covid – 19 Safety rules at school classroom!

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About the Covid – 19 Safety Rules at School Classroom

The pandemic has taught us a lot about how to protect ourselves. It is the duty of the teacher to protect the children by knowing the facts and taking safety measures perfectly. A little carelessness may cause serious problems. It’s been one year and the situation is not getting any better. So we will have to take all the precautionary measures the most. Amidst the pandemic, the education sector is adversely affected as children were sitting at their homes doing nothing.  Understanding COVID-19, how it spreads, and how to protect ourselves are the most important things to be learned first as soon as the school reopens. Students should know the rules they are going to follow and the benefits of following the covid-19 Safety Rules at School Classroom. It’s very difficult to make the children understand because innocent minds may not get acquainted with the current situations. Teacher to make sure that the details provided should be relevant, that is issued from WHO or UNICEF. False information may worry the students more. So here are the precautionary measures everyone should take to prevent themselves from the deadly virus. 

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Basic COVID – 19 Safety Rules at School Classroom

To avoid the risk of contacting the Covid- 19,these rules should be follow by every student and school faculty at all times. Here are some basic and easy to follow COVID – 19 Safety Rules at School Classroom :

• It is not always possible to wash the hands, so use hand sanitizer as an alternative that contains at least 60% alcohol.
• There’s no such thing as warm water kills the germs fast. As long as you use the soap properly, both cold and warm water are equally effective.
• It will be more working if students are provided with hand gloves or they use one by themselves so as to avoid direct touch using their hands.
• Students should never sneeze on their hands, rather they should cover it with their elbow, or may use a tissue or a handkerchief.
• Even with hand washing, encourage children not to touch their eyes, nose, and mouth frequently. As chances are a lot that virus gets spread through touching of eyes and nose.
• There should be a proper supply of hand wash as well as sanitizers in the institution, and students should also try to bring their own sanitizers.

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Practice Social Distancing 

First COVID – 19 Safety Rules at School Classroom that should be followed even outside school is practicing social distancing. It is very mandatory to keep a safe distance between two people. The virus doesn’t spread through the air but by touches and body particles like saliva, cough droplets, etc. There should be some permanent protocols issued by the school authorities or the state/local government. Favored measures include:

1. Keep a distance of at least 1 meter between everyone present at the school.
2. There should be a proper desk spacing of at least 1 meter, lunch breaks should be decreased, or may have lunch at desks only. 
3. Limit the mix-up of classes, one group of students should remain in a particular classroom. Reduce shifting from one class to another for various purposes. 
4. Reduce the number of children per class, and allow students to use different corridors so as to ignore unnecessary crowds. Stagger the school timings, so that a whole lot of teachers and students can not gather together.
5. Advise against crowding during school pick up, and restrict seniors, or older members of the family to pick up students. Arrange different pick-up/ drop times to avoid the crowd.
6. Use signs and markings to denote the distances, where the student should be at.
7. Discuss and teach how to maintain distance, and physical education and sports lessons.
8. Encourage students not to get involved in big gatherings.

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Keep your Hand Clean

Hand Washing is one of the easiest, economic and effective ways to keep the virus away. The hand is the part of the human body that is mostly exposed to external matters. 

Teachers should actively participate in guiding the students on how to wash their hands properly. The steps are mentioned here:

1. Wet hands, with safe and clean water.
2. Apply enough soap, hand washes to cover wet hands.
3. Scrub all the surfaces including the back, for at least 20 seconds.
4. Rinse the hands with clean running water again.
5. Dry hands with a clean cloth, or a single-use towel.

Mask is your Armour

Students should be encouraged to always cover up their mouths with masks and after usage dispose of them safely. Wearing a mask should never hinder a student from getting an education. If a student is unable to have a mask, the school should provide them with the utmost care. Research says that wearing a surgical mask or a KN95 has given the most effective results, whereas cloth masks are giving the least effective results. So students should be convinced to wear surgical or KN95 masks, so as to ensure complete protection. Nowadays, wearing masks has been a habit for everyone, so teachers should teach the students to wear masks constantly. 

If your students are specially-abled, such as hearing loss or auditory problems, then do consider how these children miss the learning opportunities due to wearing masks and unable to see the lip-reading. Hence, adapt masks (such as clear masks) so as to enable lip-reading or may use the face shield as an alternative.

Cleaning and Disinfecting

Daily cleaning of the classroom and disinfecting them is obligatory. Surfaces and objects like desktops, benchtops, boards, chalks, duster, doors, windows, computer keyboards, hands-on learning items, taps, and toys to be cleaned daily with utmost care. If surfaces or objects are soiled with body fluids or blood, immediately clean them, by wearing gloves and masks and disinfecting the surface after removing the spill. 

What to do If Covid- 19 Symptoms Appear?

If you have any of these symptoms, take all necessary precautions. It is advised to get tested for Covid- 19 at your nearest covid- 19 testing center if symptoms continue for more than 3 days. Here are precautions and common symptoms:

1.Identifying the symptoms

The most common symptoms are fever, cough, and tiredness. Other symptoms can include shortness of breath, chest pain or pressure, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, confusion, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and skin rashes.

2.Taking precautionary measures 

1. Allot the student a particular area in the school where he can wait. Flawlessly, the room shall be well ventilated, well sanitized. Students must wait for their parents/caretaker to pick them up. 
2. Provide the sick child with masks and gloves if available.
3. Consider the temperature of the parent, caretaker who came to pick up the sick child.
4. Ensure a procedure for the sick child and direct them with some medical institutions.
5. Encourage all the students to self isolate themselves, if they’re feeling sick.

According to UNICEF:  There have been several reports of children acquiring a multisystem inflammatory condition, which is possibly linked with COVID-19. If you notice any rash, hypertension, or acute gastrointestinal problems in your students, it could be an indication that they are experiencing multisystem inflammatory syndrome and should seek medical attention immediately.

It is a serious task to convince children to maintain the covid protocols. Teachers can make use of fun games, and songs to impart knowledge regarding the virus. The fight against Covid – 19 is not over, India will win together and overcome all challenges. For more awesome content, stay connected to Leverage Edu. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.