UP, 5 other states expand resumption of schools
Attendance remains low to moderate due to hesitancy from parents or lack of transport provided by the institutions
NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh and five other states, apart from the national capital, expanded on Wednesday the resumption of schools for students with strict guidelines on social distancing and sanitising , and saw low to moderate attendance levels on the first day due to hesitancy from parents or lack of transport provided by the institutions.
In Uttar Pradesh, classroom teaching resumed for primary students (classes 1 to 5) after a gap of about five months with attendance varying from a meagre 25% to moderate 70% on day one. They followed the same stipulations as mandated for the senior classes, which include two shifts, and arrangements for hand sanitisers, handwash, thermal scanning, pulse oximeter and first aid kits on the premises. Earlier, classes 6 to 8 opened from August 24, and 9 to 12 from August 16 in Uttar Pradesh.
In Delhi, classes 9 to 12 opened for the first time since March last year. Haryana, where middle, secondary and senior secondary schools were
already functioning, opened its doors for students in the primary classes 4 and 5. Madhya Pradesh saw its first school opening after the pandemic, with classes 6 to 12 opening on Wednesday. In Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, students of classes 9 to 12 returned to school, while in Telangana all classes except residential schools and tribal welfare schools with hostel facilities were allowed to open.
In many of these states, however, online classes remained an option.
Justifying the state government’s decision to reopen schools, Uttar Pradesh’s basic education minister Satish Chandra Dwivedi said, “As the Covid situation has eased, it was felt necessary to reopen schools in UP in a phased manner.” The Covid-19 situation was “well
within control” and more than six crore people in the state were vaccinated, he said. Dwivedi, who visited a governmentrun primary school in Makdampur, said every school would have a nodal officer to keep a watch on the students’ health.
One of the reasons for thin to moderate attendance in primary classes in UP was that parents were concerned about the health of their children for whom no Covid-19 vaccine has become available yet.
Besides, a number of schools are not plying school vehicles to transport students.
“The school will provide transport from September 6 for those students whose parents ask for vehicle service,” said Geetika Kapoor, principal of St Teresa’s College in Aashiana
locality of Lucknow.
“Commuting daily to school will be mostly taken up by parents through their own vehicles or hired ones with minimal seating. School will provide conveyance facility after taking the consent for the same, most probably by September 6,” said Anil Agarwal, managing director of St Joseph group of institutions in Lucknow.
At several government schools, teachers accorded a warm welcome to students by applying tilak, offering laddus and garlanding them as they entered the school premises.
Schools in Haryana reported an attendance rate of 26%, with officials attributing this to both heavy rain and some measure of Covid-related hesitancy. How
ever, for those children that did make it to school, it was day when they met classmates after nearly 18 months.
Ashish Kumar, a student of Class 4 at government school in Rohtak’s Bohar, said, “We faced problems during online classes and missed our friends. We have been asked not to sit on the same bench, and directed not to share water bottles.”
Rajbir Siwach, headmaster of the Girls High School in Ishwarwal in Bhiwani, said that only two students out of a total of 26 attended class on Wednesday.
In Madhya Pradesh, among the checks put in place by the state administration, schools could only open with 50% attendance, with each student allowed to attend class three times in a week. Under government guidelines, vaccinations of teachers and other staff members have also been made mandatory.
Most private schools in the big cities of the state did not reopen on Wednesday, with school administrations saying that they were yet to make arrangements as per the guidelines issued.
Government schools did open though, and the headmaster of Sarojini Naidu government school, Lakshmi Bhargava, said, “The school has been reopened with proper arrangement of social distancing and santisation. We allowed the students only after receiving the consent letter of parents.”
In Tamil Nadu, students from Class 9 to 12 went back to school on Wednesday after March last year.
The Tamil Nadu government, however, said that not all students were compelled to attend and they could opt for online classes with the consent of their parents.
Most schools in the states did not function beyond lunchtime to prevent a spread while eating. According to the SOP issued by the state, schools should function six days a week and classrooms should not have more than 20 students to ensure physical distancing. If no additional rooms are available, then students should come to school on a rotational basis on alternate days.
“Ninety per cent of the teachers and non-teaching staff have received at least one dose, ‘’ school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi told reporters on Wednesday, adding that arrangements were being made to ensure full vaccination of all school staff.
Colleges also reopened in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, and the state asked institutions to ensure that students coming from Kerala, where Covid cases are still on the rise, have been vaccinated or produce RT-PCR negative reports. All students in the state can commute for free without a bus pass in state transport corporation buses.
In Rajasthan, too, schools opened for classes 9 to 12 along with regulations that mandate a ban on holding mass prayers, sporting activities, meetings, and distribution of cooked midday meals. Only dry ration will be provided to students, and wearing masks and observance of social distance will be mandatory on campus, senior state official said.
While across India different states and UTs have used different timelines for the opening of their schools, Assam, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Kerala, Meghalaya, West Bengal have so far not opened schools, with decisions to be taken in the next few days.
In Kerala, government officials said that there were no immediate plans to reopen.