Government schools in Chandigarh reopen for Classes 9 to 12

Classroom teaching has remained suspended since March this year due to the Covid pandemic, though online classes and later academic consultations have been going on

After remaining open for academic consultations for over a month, Chandigarh’s 93 government schools will begin regular classroom teaching for Classes 9 to 12 from Monday.

Schools have remained closed since March this year due to the Covid pandemic, though online classes have been going on.

To prevent congestion, classes will be organised in two batches, the first from 9am to 11:30am for Classes 10 and 12, and the second from 12pm to 2:30pm for Classes 9 and 11.

Students will need to submit the consent of their parents, and attendance won’t be compulsory. Online classes will continue to remain the preferred medium of teaching.

Earlier, the education department had reopened schools for Classes 9 to 12 on September 21, for students to clear their doubts on fixed days every week.

However, attendance remained very low. Now, the education department expects at least 20% attendance in the regular classes, with higher numbers expected in schools situated in peripheral areas.

Private schools not to open, for now

Meanwhile, private schools will remain closed for the time being.

HS Mamik, president, Independent School Association, said private schools will conduct a fresh survey from November 2 to find how many parents are willing to send their children. Private schools had reported very poor footfall during academic consultations.

“If the number crosses 50%, we will consider reopening schools. Otherwise, we will continue with online classes only. It will be difficult for teachers to take both physical and online classes,” he said.

Education department to create 1,000 more seats in Class 11

The education department will be creating around 1,000 more seats in Class 11.

“After the third counselling, around 1,000 students, who had completed Class 10 from government schools but could not score well, are still left to get admissions,” said Rubinderjit Singh Brar, director school education. “We will create more seats in Class 11 to accommodate them.”

The seats will be created in the humanities stream, which majority of the students want to pursue, and only those government school students who had participated in all three counsellings will be eligible.