As the Maharashtra government reopens schools after more than 20 months, most of the parents are willing to send their kids back to schools, especially those whose children are in senior classes. Some, however, await vaccination for kids to roll out before giving consent to attend offline classes. Regardless, a majority of the parent community has acknowledged the impact of lack of physical classes on their kids. Meanwhile, school admirations are anticipating a better footfall in the school post the winter break.
Welcoming the state government’s move to resume physical classes, Rajesh Khubchandani, whose children are enrolled in class 10 at a Mumbai-based school, said, “It has been almost two years that students, including mine, have not gone back to the school. Even though my children have adjusted very well to online classes, it is not the same as physical ones.”
Many parents also want physical classes in order to end the confined routine for kids. “Since children have been confined to their homes, they are spending more time on their phones and gadgets, resulting in digital confinement which is impacting them. Multiple reports claim that the new variants will not be as catastrophic as the earlier ones and with vaccinations coming most likely for children, many parents like me are confident of sending their children back to the schools,” he added.
Read | Covid Crisis: Demand for Vaccinating Children Intensifies amid Mental Health Concerns
Another parent who does not wish to be named, claims that “Children place in schools and not at home. We can not continue to be scared of Covid, we have to learn to live with it. The government is making sure of all precautions and we should trust them and at the same time take extra precautions from our side and continue to live our normal life.”
However, not all parents seem to feel the same, many also are apprehensive to send their children to schools, especially due to the scare of new covid variant. Vinaya Surve, a resident of Gokulgham and a parent of a class 9 student, said, “I have not given my consent to sending my child to go back to school. We have already seen how the first two waves were handled by the government and with the reports of the new variant coming this is not the right time to reopen the schools.”
Read | Move Beyond Exams: Academicians Highlight Loopholes in Indian Assessment System
She added, “Unless, all children are vaccinated the schools should not start physical classes. We have waited for so long for school reopening then why can’t we wait for some more time. That will be a better decision in the long run for not just children but their families as well.” She added that many parents like her have expressed their concerns on the implementation of Covid protocols in schools and which is why they do not want to send their children back to schools.
Attendance to Expected to Increase Post Winter Vacation
Stating that footfall in both primary and secondary classes will see a drastic increase post the winter break this year, Dr Gool Ghadiali, prinicipal of Gopal Sharma International School, said, “Our school will resume physical classes for the first time on January 4. Anyway, very few days were left before the winter break and after consulting to a lot of parents we came to a conclusion to reopen physical classes after the winter break.” She added that 50 per cent of the student’s parents have given consent to send their children to school, which is a multiple fold increase as compared to the last months.
“After looking at the increasing strength of the students in the secondary schools — that had resumed physical classes last month itself– many parents, whose ward are in primary sections, are also now willing to send their children to schools,” she added. Talking about the easing of the Covid scare among parents, she also said that parents while there are some apprehensions among parents over the new variants, the fear has eased in the last many months.
Stating that 50 per cent of students are already back to Poddar international and more are likely to join the force after the Christmas break, director of Poddar international, Vandana Lulla said, “There is less scare of covid among the parents now as it has been more than two years that their children have been deprived of physical education.” She says, as most public places have reopened and children are now going out to play and for other activities, parents want their children to again attend school as well.”
She also reiterated that students’ footfall in the secondary schools have increased and the same might happen for the primary classes in the coming month. Parents whose children are in government schools have shown more willingness to send their children back to schools.
Read | At 73, Retired Headmaster Thangappan Gets Doctorate Degree
Speaking to News18 Ankita Agrawal, school leader for iTeach, an NGO that works with government schools in Maharashtra, said that “After the lockdown, for the students in government school the learning loss has been more, as they do not have the same resources as the once from students from private schools. This is why after the Maharashtra government announced resuming the physical classes, almost all parents at our schools gave consent to send their students.”
As per information shared by the state school education department, 13.4 million students are studying between classes 1 to 7 in the state and more than half a million teachers for these batches.
Read all the Latest Education News here
Comments
0 comment