Vaccinate all students appearing for boards on priority: Parents

A woman gets jabbed at BYL Nair Hospital on Wednesday. Vaccination for adolescents aged 15-17 will begin from January 3. Pic/Ashish Raje

Students appearing for board exams should be vaccinated on priority as they fall under the 15-17 year age group for which vaccine has been announced, demanded parents. With the board exams approaching, both teachers and parents are being cautious, especially in view of the Omicron variant and rising number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra. Teachers working for the board exams have also demanded that they be considered for booster dose on priority.

Even as there is no demand to cancel the exam yet, everybody wants to be doubly cautious knowing that the new variant is more transmissible than the previous ones. The demand to vaccinate those appearing for board exams comes as the students will have no option to skip the exams.

"We finally have a vaccine for children aged between 15 and 17 years of age which will start in January. This age group includes those appearing for board exams and we still have two months for the exams. If the students are vaccinated there will be some relief when they appear for board exams which will be held in the offline mode this year," said Madhuri Gavande, a parent from Dahisar whose daughter is to appear for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam.

The SSC and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) are going to be held traditionally this year and are scheduled to begin from March 15 and March 4, respectively. "Considering the time left for the exams, it will be better if they are given Covaxin, which has a shorter gap between two doses, as compared to Covishield," said Rajesh Shah, a parent from Mulund.

The BJP Teachers Association has written to the government stating the need to allow booster doses for teachers. Anil Bornare from the association said, "All teachers are anyway doubly vaccinated and are eligible for booster dose. Just like other frontline workers, teachers too are going to work to conduct board exams successfully amid this scare. Then why not include teachers too in the category of those getting booster jabs on priority."

Around 26 lakh students are set to appear for the state board exams across Maharashtra and almost a lakh teachers and non-teaching staff will work to conduct this exam successfully. According to Bornare, being vaccinated will bring relief to all during this period.

15 Mar
Day when SSC exams will start