Back to school occupies the world

UNICEF recommends preparing children for a safe, physically and psychologically safe return to school in the time of Corona.

Parents and students are awaiting the final form of the next academic year and the precautionary measures that will accompany the students' journey to and from school around the world, after months of isolation and the application of physical distancing policies due to the outbreak of the new Corona virus.

The responsibility of preparing the parties concerned with the educational system, starting with the teaching staff and parents, up to the students, remains the most prominent challenge now, especially for children in the foundational educational stages.

Dr. Mona Al-Bahr, advisor to the head of the Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi and assistant professor at the UAE University, said that preparing students psychologically requires the need to start an integrated plan based on the principle of partnership between the family and the school.

She stressed the need to start launching awareness-raising media campaigns to make the required difference and achieve progress in the level of awareness among faculty, parents, and students, and ensure the best psychological preparation for the parties to the educational system.

She explained that the results of the Covid-19 questionnaire reached by the Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi Statistics Center showed the confidence of most families in returning to school, whether through full or partial return. She pointed out the importance of strengthening this confidence with clear and immediate awareness plans.

In the same context, she pointed out the importance of choosing the language and means by which students are expected to be reached, and dealing with them clearly and flexibly about the importance of following the policies of physical distancing, and adhering to the process of washing hands while raising awareness among parents of the importance of contributing to strengthening the system of precautionary measures and adhering to special protocols in this framework.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) indicated in a report on its website that there is a discrepancy in children's enthusiasm for the idea of ​​returning to school, while many of them feel enthusiastic to return to school, others are worried or afraid of this step, reviewing a set of tips to help children to return to school. Dealing with some of the complex feelings they may face when they return to school.

The report warned of the importance of conducting extensive dialogues with children to reassure them and address the concerns they may feel.

The report emphasized that families are able to create a state of leadership awareness so that the ideas they plant in the child are transformed into convictions that enable him to help and encourage his colleagues to adopt them, such as clarifying methods of preventing the spread of germs by washing hands with soap and water, and containing sneezing and coughing by bending the elbow and covering the mouth with the arm.

In the same context, the report stressed the importance of raising students' enthusiasm for returning to school in view of the positive aspects represented by the school and classroom atmosphere, seeing friends and teachers, and acquiring new knowledge. He stressed the importance of preparing students for possible scenarios, such as preventing a student from attending school in case of suspicion or contact, and the possibility of stopping the decision to return to schools and returning to the distance learning system and sending reassurances that they will not be cut off from their colleagues if this happens, by ensuring their use of specialized programs and applications.

He stressed the importance of enhancing knowledge related to the emerging corona virus and protecting children from any manifestations of bullying they may face at school due to some misleading information about Covid-19, such as the link to the infection of the person, the group from which he comes, or the language he speaks.

He concluded that it is important for the family to know the policy of their children's school and the procedures they intend to implement so that they are studied and explained step by step to the students and discussed with them in all possible scenarios for each action.