Delhi: Private schools may wait till after Diwali

Schools have been open since September 1 for classes IX to XII and have been reporting varying levels of physical attendance, from as much as 80% in some government schools to less than 50% in private schools.

At DAV Public School Pushpanjali Enclave, the physical attendance has been around 60-70% for classes IX-XII.

Principal Rashmi Biswal said they are looking forward to welcoming younger children back to school but would have to work through some logistical challenges first.

“We were preparing for classes V to VIII, and the announcement that the reopening will be for primary grades as well came as a surprise. I’m a little worried about the handling of younger children. But the first step will be to drop a line to all parents that we are planning the reopening and to get a rough estimate of how many students are willing to come. In a physical parent-teacher meeting I had with preschoolers in August, there was a lot of excitement to come to school, which they have never been to. Working parents are also under a lot of pressure… With the need to open up all grades, maintain 50% capacity in rooms, and have blended learning, there’s quite a lot of burden. Many schools, including ours, had streamlined their staff during the pandemic and we’ll have to reappoint,” she said.

She said they will only reopen after the Diwali break, in the second week of November.

At Bal Bharti Public School Pitampura, principal Meenu Goswami said they are likely to open after Diwali. She said school buses are not likely to resume as it is not “financially viable”.

“On a given day, we can only call only 50% students, and we don’t know how many of them will actually attend. I don’t know how many of those children will take the bus… It’s not financially viable to rope in a private contractor with these considerations. And if we do introduce bus services, we’ll have to hike up the transport fee,” she said.

However, she said the school is prepared to take on blended learning for all grades with interactive panels in all classrooms.

At government schools which are still functioning as sites for non-teaching activities, space remains a concern for the next phase.

“We are excited to have our students back and the issue we face is that of space. My school has vaccination sites, and each site is operating with three classrooms. We will be able to bring it down to two rooms per site, but there are some other schools with five sites. Even for classes IX to XII, we have only been able to call different classes on alternate days to accommodate them at 50% capacity. But we are prepared for blended teaching since we have access to the required Google platforms, tablets and have even purchased tripods to facilitate recording,” said P D Sharma, head of a government school in Peeragarhi and general secretary of Vice and Principals’ Association of Delhi.