Parental concerns about school reopening during COVID-19 pandemic at Bharatpur, Chitwan

Abstract

Background: During the Corona Virus Infection Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, educational sectors were highly influenced worldwide. Educational authorities decided to close schools and adopt online learning as an alternative option. Parental concern for child safety during school reopening became an essential consideration. Hence, this study aimed to assess the parental concern about school reopening during COVID-19 in Bharatpur, Chitwan.

Method: A cross-sectional web-based survey was carried out among parents whose children were studying in three private schools in the Chitwan district, Nepal. The sample was selected using the convenience sampling technique. Ethical approval was obtained. Data were collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire from 28 Jan 2022 to 7 Feb 2022. The questionnaire was made available through Google form in the Nepali version. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 20. A chi-square test was applied to measure the association between parental concern and selected variables. Statistical significance was set at <0.05.

Result: Out of 585 parents median age was 35 years (19 and 78). Parents' concern about school reopening was high in environmental (78.17%) and physical domain (77.08%), whereas lower in the academic (64.37%) and social domain (60.8%). A high level of concern about school opening was found in 54.7% of parents. The level of parental concern was significantly associated with the relationship with the child (p=0.015), and knowledge about COVID-19 (p=0.023).

Conclusion: Parental concerns about school reopening after the COVID-19 pandemic were high, especially in environmental and physical domains. Relationship with the child and knowledge about COVID-19 tend to influence the level of concern on school reopening.