Who's going to take responsibility for potential Covid spread if schools reopen, asks Thai media. Many parents are desperate for their children to get back to school. While others are still petrified they will bring Covid-19 home from class. Thai Visa



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In an opinion piece Thai media Daily News posed a question:

 

Who is going to take responsibility if opening schools results in a further spread of Covid-19?

 

They said that the government and CCSA need to listen to the voices of the people.

 

But exactly what those views are is anyone's guess. 

 

The schools were due to open for Semester 1 mid-May but the third wave of the pandemic soon put paid to that with June 1st mooted.

 

With the pandemic still raging and the vaccine rollout shambolic and slow this was put back further to June 14th especially for larger schools.

 

This despite attempts to introduce 44 protocols as part of "Thai Stop Covid Plus" an initiative that teachers, parents and pupils have no understanding of. 

 

Now schools out of the directive reach of the Education Ministry or who have ability to decide their own fate are deciding not to reopen until at least the beginning of next month. 

 

This has already been announced in all schools in Chonburi and private ones in the Hua Hin area. Schools in Bangkok are expected to follow suit.

 

The situation is further exacerbated by different color zones in different areas of the country. Some areas are still experiencing clusters of infection and fear is rife.

 

Others never have or have few worries and just want to see a return to normal. 

 

There is utter confusion. 

 

The vaccination program has reached some but by no means all teachers and admin staff. It certainly has not reached parents who are in the younger age groups than those already prioritized.

 

And no one is vaccinating children.

 

Many parents are desperate for their children to get back to school.

 

While others are still petrified they will bring Covid-19 home from class. 

 

Teachers don't know what to do and are struggling in a cyber world of online learning they have never been properly prepared for.

 

And it appears that the government have priorities elsewhere. Their rhetoric is to get children back learning, but critics say they care more about money and trying to woo tourists than concentrate on the youth of the nation. 

 

The education ministry, under a new leader after the last one was barred from government on sedition charges, is providing scant leadership and seems totally out of its depth and clueless. 

 

The result is a kind of limbo.

 

Where few know what is going to happen in the coming weeks, few understand the measures and many are just mulling unpleasant scenarios while being given conflicting information.