Schools and students' preparedness on reopening and adaptation during and after the pandemic: A cross-sectional review of schools of a city in Eastern India

Background: COVID-19pandemic led to closure of schools as a precautionary measure and later the reopening of the schools was a gruesome task for the stake-holders.This needed earnest imposition of measures of prevention to manage disease. Aims: This study aims at observing the preparations and other health safety measures being taken by different secondary level high schools of Bhubaneswar, stratified for its ownership categories (government and private); it would also try and measure the student's perception of the newer methods of imparting education-their advantages and disadvantages besides their personal safety. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was planned in Bhubaneswar for 900 students; surveyed after Multistage random sampling technique approaches. Result: The overall basic knowledge about COVID-19 was appropriate, irrespective of the category of the schools. The practice of COVID-appropriate behaviour was better in private school students; this can be related to the finding that Government school (around 28%) students were more affected by COVID-19 than private school students (around 22%). The students of both strata significantly agreed that Lockdown had hampered their education (68.7% in Government and 53.9% in Private schools) and they were under stress due to the pandemic. Conclusion: The pandemic definitely has breathed an air of fresh life into the age-old institution of schools, whose handling and functioning were dealt with unacceptable complacency towards student's health and safety. The alternate mode of teaching has definitely come up as a plausible alternative, but would never replace face-face classes.