Abstract

Background: Schools teachers, being the intellectual resource, can aid in controlling epidemics like COVID 19. To serve the purpose school teachers themselves need to be aware of such emergencies.

Objectives: To assess the knowledge, awareness, and perception of education and training/teaching professionals in India (KAPEI-1) about epidemic outbreaks like COVID 19.

Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in North India from January 2020 to June 2020 and included teaching professionals and school teachers from different education institutions. Data was collected by using a self-administered questionnaire, with questions about demographics knowledge awareness and perception about COVID-19. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences statistical software, version 22.

Results: Of the 210 participants, 300 completed the survey (primary teachers: 48.0%; middle school teachers: 15.5%; secondary/senior secondary teachers: 29.0%; management level: 7.5%). Sixty six percent (66.0%) of the teachers had never received any of the training pertaining to health emergency or disaster response and preparedness. About 3.5% teachers mentioned that they “Don’t know” how to suspect COVID-19 infection. Nine percent (9.0%) of respondents mentioned that their school did not have any medical officer or auxiliary staff.

Conclusion: The study highlights the need for adequate training of the education and teaching professional so that they can be utilized as resources for prevention and control of epidemic outbreak such as COVID-19.

Keywords: Awareness; COVID-19; Healthcare Professionals; Knowledge; Perception; Schools Teachers

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Citation

Citation: Ramakant Gupta., et al. “Are we Fortified for Prevention and Control of Epidemic Outbreaks like COVID 19 in Schools of India: A Cross-sectional Knowledge Awareness and Perception Survey on Education and Training Professionals in India (KAPEI-1)". Acta Scientific Dental Sciences 4.9 (2020): 26-36.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Ramakant Gupta., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.