Amid chill, Delhi private schools switch to online classes

A number of private schools in Delhi held classes in the online mode on Monday, a day after the state government’s Directorate of Education (DoE) issued an advisory asking, private schools to remain closed till January 15 amid prevailing cold wave conditions in the city

A number of private schools in Delhi held classes in the online mode on Monday, a day after the state government’s Directorate of Education (DoE) issued an advisory asking, private schools to remain closed till January 15 amid prevailing cold wave conditions in the city.

Students going to school on a winter morning in December in New Delhi. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

The DoE on Sunday had issued an advisory, asking private schools to remain closed till January 15. It also suspended remedial classes for students of classes 9 to 12 that were taking place in government schools during the winter vacation.

Bharat Arora, president, Action Committee of Unaided Private Schools -- a consortium of more than 2,000 private schools -- said while many schools had extended the winter vacation, some had resumed classes in the online mode to avoid disruption.

“We had asked schools to abide by the DoE advisory and suggested that they could switch to online classes for this week. Many schools held online classes today since they did not want their academic cycle to get derailed,” said Arora.

Rashmi Raj Biswal, principal, DAV Public School, Pushpanjali Enclave, said her school was initially scheduled to reopen on Monday, but now in-person classes have been deferred till next week. The school, however, resumed online classes for all grades barring classes 11 and 12 on Monday.

“We have postponed physical classes and switched over to the online mode so that learning remains unaffected till class 10. For class 11 students and those having their class 12 pre-board exams, we have changed their timings,” said Biswal.

Sudha Acharya, chairperson of the National Progressive School Conference (NPSC) that has over 120 Delhi schools as members, who is also the principal of ITL Public School, Dwarka, said while his school held in-person classes for grades 6 onwards on Monday, it will revert to online classes from Tuesday. “We had called students in classes 6 to 12 for physical classes today. Around 60% students turned up for classes but we plan to switch to online classes for students in nursery till class 8 from Tuesday,” said Acharya. “For students in class 9 and above, we have shifted the class timings with classes starting at 10 am.”