Maharashtra: Schools expect good turnout with Class 5 to 8 starting from Wednesday

The Maharashtra education department’s decision to reopen schools for Classes 5 to 8 from January 27 is likely to get a good response from students. School authorities said a large number of parents have agreed to send their children to school.

Schools said that as opposed to the initial resistance from parents before schools reopened for Classes 9 to 12 from November 23, parents are now getting comfortable with the idea of schools reopening, and added that they are expecting a good attendance from the first week itself.

“We will have 100% students attending the school on the first day. We have several classrooms and have divided each division into two groups of 25 each. We have conducted meetings with parents and have taken them into confidence. They are eager to send their children to school with all protocols in place,” said Arjun Koli, principal of Karad Municipal School.

Teachers said that with schools remaining shut for the past 10 months, parents are more worried about the loss of learning of students, especially in rural areas where there are hurdles in online learning. “Parents have been asking us as to when schools would start because they can see that learning online is not as effective as learning offline. Hence, we are hoping for a good turnout as most parents have signed consent forms to send their children,” said Rajan Garud, a teacher from a zilla parishad school in Kardal, Saphale.

As per the standard operating procedures laid down by the education department, 50% students in these schools are to attend classes on a rotational basis. Similarly in the first few weeks, schools will conduct classes for three hours from 11am to 2pm.

“We will not take a break in between. Students can use the washroom or drink water while classes are on but no break will be given as such to ensure the safety of children and teachers,” said Rajkiran Chavan, teacher at Samarth Vidya Mandir, an aided school in Solapur.

There are over 106,000 schools that teach Classes 5 to 8 in the state with nearly 8,000,000 students enrolled as per the data of the Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE), 2019. Barring Mumbai, schools in most parts of the state are expected to reopen for Classes 5 to 8 on Wednesday.