‘Other civic bodies should follow PMC and allow private coaching classes to start’

PUNE As the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has given permission to private coaching classes to start in the city, HT spoke to Bandopant Bhuyar, state president of the Coaching Classes Teachers Federation and Social Forum of Maharashtra State, about the opening up of private classes in Pune.

Do you believe the PMC’s decision to allow private coaching classes to start was timely?

Our organisation welcomes this decision of PMC and we are glad students will now benefit from coaching classes. At the same time I think the decision was a bit delayed, as for last three months we have been demanding that the state government allow private coaching classes to open. All other works and businesses have started in the state, only private coaching classes were not yet allowed. Schools were allowed to open, and so far, news about students getting infected in schools is not there. Other civic bodies should allow private coaching classes to open.

Any instructions to members about safety measures to be taken while opening up?

For us the safety of students is our top priority, so along with state and central government-guidelines related to Covid, we have also given several instructions to all our members in Pune and across the state. Right from sanitising the class premises, face mask compulsion, thermal checking of students and most importantly, consent from parents needs to be taken before joining the class. If a student shows any symptoms related to Covid, then s/he should be sent back to home and parents needs to be informed. Class owners in Pune are gearing up their preparations to start offline classes from this week.

Any appeal to students and parents?

Parents can freely send children to coaching classes, with all necessary safety precautions and following Covid guidelines. As the board exams are coming and also students have started preparing for entrance exams, coaching classes play a major role. Students want to join classes as they want to score marks in the exams, we are already to take care of their further academic studies.