Schools to reopen for offline-only classes after 2 years of pandemic

For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, schools in the Capital will reopen solely in the offline mode from Friday.

The welcome move comes at a time when school administrators have said that the on-and-off twoyear-long pandemic-induced closures have resulted in a significant learning gap.

Schools were first closed in March 2020 amid the onset of Covid-19 pandemic, and classes resumed in online mode. While schools reopened for in-person classes several times in the past two years, online classes were never stopped. The decision to phase out online classes was taken during the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) meeting in February, following which schools were permitted to fully switch to offline classes from April 1, when the next academic session begins.

Sudha Acharya, chairperson of the National Progressive Schools’ Conference (NPSC), a consortium of over 120 Delhi schools, said that schools were eagerly looking forward to the resumption of classes on campus. “After two years, we will be reverting to the earlier system of teaching and learning. There will be no online classes and we are all very excited about resuming pre-pandemic ways of teaching,” said Acharya, the principal of ITL Public Dwarka.

Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu Public School, Rohini, said the school started calling students of classes 9 to 12 from the beginning of this week, and students of other classes will join on Monday.

Tania Joshi, principal of The Indian School, said that schools were looking forward to normal learning without any disruptions., “Barring one or two parents, no one has raised any complaints about the suspension of online classes. Everyone is looking forward to the return of normalcy.”

Except a parent or two, no one has raised complaints about suspension of online classes. Everyone is looking forward to the return of normalcy. TANIA JOSHI, principal,

The Indian School