Few schools, colleges stay open, but attendance low

Most schools and colleges in the city remained closed on Monday on account of the nationwide shutdown called against the fuel price hike, reports Bhavya Dore.

Most schools and colleges in the city remained closed on Monday on account of the nationwide shutdown called against the fuel price hike.

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Father Agnel School in Vashi had 60 per cent of its students turning up for classes. Snigdha Roy, vice-principal of the school, said: “Except that one of our buses were stopped briefly on the way to school, there was no other problem.”

Kamla High School and Junior college at Khar too decided to conduct classes, but barely 10 per cent of students turned up. “We told our students to watch the news and then decide whether they wanted to come to school on Monday,” said principal Rekha Jagasia.

“Officially the school was open, but as very few students showed up we couldn’t hold classes.”

RN Podar at Santacruz, Children’s Academy schools at Malad and Kandivli and DY Patil at Worli were among the city schools that chose to remain shut. “We did not want to take any risk,” said Indu Mathur, principal of Apeejay School at Kharghar.

Some schools informed their students on Friday that they would stay closed, while others sent out text messages to students over the weekend.

A few colleges such as Sathaye at Vile Parle (East) and Khalsa at Matunga remained open, but attendance was thin. St Xavier’s College at Dhobi Talao, St Andrew’s College at Bandra and SIES at Sion did not hold classes.

Educational institutes plan to cover the syllabus by holding classes on a Saturday. “We have to compensate in some way, we will see how we arrange that,” said Ajit Singh, director, Khalsa College.