Chandigarh private schools not in favour of reopening from October 15

The UT education department had sent forms to each recognised private school in the city to get response regarding the same

The ministry of home affairs (MHA), in the Unlock 5.0 guidelines issued at the beginning of the month, had permitted the schools to reopen from October 15 but most private schools of the city are not in favour of it.

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The UT education department had sent forms to each recognised private school in the city to get response regarding the same. The response has come back negative as per the department.

Confirming this, UT district education officer (DEO) Ravinder Kaur said, “Private schools are not willing to partially reopen for academic consultation October 15 onwards. The parents are not on board with this, and the schools, which had reopened for board classes from September 21 onwards, have witnessed low attendance.”

PARENTS UNWILLING TO SEND KIDS TO SCHOOL

HS Mamik, president of the independent school association and chairman of Vivek High School in Sector 38, said, “Out of the 75 schools in our association, most have reported that only 10-17% of the parents will give consent to send their kids to school as per surveys conducted by them. We have relayed this information back to the department and, what the parents want should be taken into consideration.”

Kavita Das, principal of St Johns High School in Sector 26, said, “Less than 10% of parents are interested in sending their kids to school and we have to take our staff’s health also into consideration so we have replied that it is not feasible to reopen the school from October 15.”

Das added that the school is only conducting practicals for students of board classes in a staggered manner. The practicals started in October after the half-yearly examination.

Atul Khanna, director of Strawberry Fields High School in Sector 26, added that ever since the school had opened for board classes, not even a single student had turned up.

“If students of board classes aren’t showing up for academic consultations, then we can’t expect younger students to show up.”

SOME SCHOOLS YET TO SUBMIT RESPONSES

DEO Ravinder Kaur added that some schools haven’t submitted their responses yet so, calculating the percentage of parents in favour of reopening is not possible yet. Even teachers in their feedback have asked for the date of reopening of schools to be delayed.

Meanwhile, around 2,000 students have been going to the government schools daily since September 21.

Director of school education (DSE) Rubinderjit Singh Brar said, “Government school children are still willing to go to school and we have seen higher numbers especially in the schools in the periphery of the city.”

Brar added that the final call regarding the reopening of schools will be taken by UT administrator VP Singh Badnore.