Hundreds of school-going children in Andheri have been taken ill and had to skip schools exams due to ill health. School officials have said that the children had fallen ill due to viral infections and that they will have to reschedule the exams after schools reopens after the Diwali vacations.
Speaking about the problem with students taking leave from school since the third week of October, Aftab Siddiqui, an English teacher at an Andheri school, said that most schools in the Four bungalows, Seven bungalows, Versova and Lokhandwala area noticed a sudden spurt of students taking leave before and during the term exams that were being conducted from mid-October. “The rise in absentee students is worrying and most schools made a note of it and reported it to the education inspector’s office,” said Ms Siddiqui adding that the note submitted by most parents for the leave was due to viral fever and infection.
Dr Tanu Singhal of Kokilaben Hospital, a paediatrician, who specialises in infectious diseases admitted that there was a viral infection that was making many children ill and some also required to be admitted to hospitals to be administered intravenous fluids. “The viral infection is affecting the white blood count, haemoglobin and platelets of the children. The immunity of the children is low and needs to be improved. There is no specific medicine to treat the virus except to keep the body hydrated,” said Dr Singhal.
A teacher from another Andheri school, Uday Nare, concurred with Ms Siddiqui and said that the school was scheduling re-exams for the students who had missed out on the exams. “The students cannot be allowed to suffer due to the viral infection. We will be having the exams soon after the schools reopen after the Diwali vacations,” said Nare.
An officer from the education inspector B.D. Puri’s office said that they had not received any official letter from the schools about the high number of absent students but had heard about it. “Our office has asked the schools to submit a list of absentee students as a precautionary measure. In case of the number of absent students being alarmingly high, the information will be passed on to the medical officer of the BMC,” said the official.
