New Delhi, August 11: Junior Modern School decided to close down for a week after two students from the school tested positive for H1N1 influenza on Monday.
Many others meanwhile decided against shutting down to prevent panic among students and their parents.
The school on Humayun Road becomes the third in the city — after Sanskriti School, Chanakyapuri, and DPS, East of Kailash — to close down after students were confirmed with swine flu.
Two Class III students of Junior Modern School tested positive for the influenza, officials said.
On a day the Maharashtra government asked all schools, colleges and private tuition classes to close for a week in Pune, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit reiterated that there was no need to shut schools in Delhi. But she added that each school management should take the final decision on this.
Principals of several schools said shutting down might create more panic. “Closing schools is not a solution,” Tagore International School principal Suman Nath said, “and I won’t do that just because others are doing it. What will happen if some positive cases come up after the week is over? Then we will have to shut the school again.
“We cannot do that indefinitely.”
Ameeta Wattal, principal of Springdales School, which has reported 14 positive cases so far, said there is constant communication between parents and the school authorities. “I am getting calls from parents (about closure) but I always maintain there is no need to shut the school,” she said.
Wattal said the school has been fumigating its classrooms, corridors, buses and canteen, among others, three times a week.
Nath said Tagore International has stopped hosting inter-school competitions. “We are not allowing students to visit other schools either. We also have put a stop to all nature and heritage walks that we used to have in our school.”
Many schools, including Tagore International, have done away with morning assembly to prevent crowding.
Wattal said Springdales has issued circulars in Hindi regarding what to do and what not to do. The circulars have been distributed to staff members like peons, helpers and others.
–Agencies