Teachers of government and government-aided schools in the district seem to have largely shed vaccine hesitancy and wish to take part in immunisation drive.
Last month, the School Education Department, under the guidance of the district administration and the Health Department, conducted special camps at the block-level for administering the vaccine to teaching and non-teaching staff.
Since the turnout of teachers was not along expected lines, the initiative undertaken through the special camps was extended to the public.
In order to motivate teachers to get themselves immunised against the infection, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi initiated a special camp at Syed Murtuza Government Higher Secondary School in the city.
So far, a little more than 5,600 out of 13,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in government and government-aided schools have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Once the supplies are streamlined, the percentage of vaccinated teachers will go up from the present extent of 45% to more than 60%, in a matter of a week or two, Chief Educational Officer R. Arivazhagan said.
In the previous exercise, the response was good in Thuraiyur and Manapparai blocks.
The turnout is expected to be high in all blocks for subsequent special vaccination camps, Mr. Arivazhagan said.
Citing the havoc wreaked by the pandemic on children’s education across the globe, UNICEF has laid emphasis on vaccinating teachers on priority basis, once frontline health personnel and high-risk populations are vaccinated.
The reasoning of UNICEF has been that vaccinating teachers and protecting them from the virus will pave way for teaching in person, and for keeping schools open.
According to UNICEF, the assumption that closing schools may slow the spread of the disease is unsupported by evidence.
