As per the attendance recorded by the education department, out of 17.88 lakh students enrolled in Class 6-8 in 34,000 government schools, 6.2 lakh were present. (Express File) Nearly 34,000 government primary schools in Gujarat recorded an average attendance of 34.71 per cent as Classes 6 to 8 resumed on Thursday after nearly a year. The schools were closed in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said, “It is a good sign. With the response, I am sure this will increase to 80 per cent by next week.”
However, most of the private schools have decided to resume primary classes from the new academic session as most of the curriculum has already been covered.
“The curriculum has been covered and is complete in online classes even for government school students but we will take revision classes in schools reopened from today. This will benefit students who have queries which could not be resolved during online classes,” said Chudasama.
As per the attendance recorded by the education department, out of 17.88 lakh students enrolled in Class 6-8 in 34,000 government schools, 6.2 lakh were present.
Class-wise attendance revealed that out of over 6.21 lakh students in Class 6, over 2.19 lakh attended school, recording an attendance of 35.28 per cent, while Class 7 recorded 34.35 per cent. In Class 8, out of 6.04 lakh students, over 2.08 lakh attended, recording attendance of 34.46 per cent.
Following the reopening of colleges and secondary classes, the Gujarat government had declared on February 13 to resume upper primary classes from February 18. While attendance is not mandatory, students were allowed to attend school only after submitting consent letter from parents.
Schools offering online classes continue along with the state government’s initiative of home learning through DD Girnar and Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG’s) Vande Gujarat channels.
