Schools unlikely to reopen in Chandigarh this month

It is learnt that parents were not on board with this idea, and even private schools that had reopened partially last month for Classes 9-12 reported low attendance

The Chandigarh administration is unlikely to give the go ahead to open private and government schools in the city this month.

“With private schools and parents not in favour of it, it will be difficult to open these educational institutes in October,” said UT adviser Manoj Parida. The final decision will be taken by UT administrator VP Singh Badnore in the war room meeting, he said.

Schools have been shut since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They were opened partially in Chandigarh from October 21 for students of Classes 9 to 12, who required “guidance” from teachers.

The Centre, in the Unlock 5 guidelines issued at the beginning of this month, had permitted schools to be reopened from October 15 for academic consultations for students of lower classes as well.

On October 8, Badnore had directed education secretary Sarpreet Singh Gill to hold talks with parents over physical attendance of students in schools. The education department then sent forms to each recognised private school in the city to get their response, which came back negative.

It is learnt that parents were not on board with this idea, and even schools that had reopened partially last month reported low attendance. In fact, in government schools, attendance was between 1,500 to 2,000 despite getting parents’ consent from around 25,000 students. Meanwhile, online teaching is still going on.