Delhi schools say want to go entirely offline, but option of hybrid mode an impediment

Though the Union Ministry of Education has left it to states and union territories to take a call on the need for parental consent, an education department official said that a nod from parents will continue to be a prerequisite for children attending physical classes. However, the earlier cap of education institutes being allowed to function at only 50% of classroom capacity is being done away with.

Some schools have taken this a go-ahead to head back to only offline classes. Sudha Acharya, principal of ITL Public School, said that she held an interaction with students of classes IX to XII and found that they are all enthusiastic to get back to school and parents are on-board too. “We will be resuming offline classes as normal from Monday, starting with practicals. When younger children get back the week after that, we will resume school bus services as well. We’re no longer going to have online classes, and there will be no more hybrid mode,” she said.

However, others think that the prerequisite of parental consent means this will not be a possibility for them. “No matter how much we’ve been saying that we want to move completely to the offline mode, I think we’ll find that the status quo from the last time we reopened will continue. There will still be parents who will say ‘let kids get the second vaccine’ or ‘they’re actually okay learning from home’. Hybrid mode is the problem – it needs to go, and we will of course continue with safety protocols. When we opened last time, only 35% parents of class VI students had given consent,” said Tania Joshi, principal The Indian School.

This was echoed by Minakshi Kushwaha, principal Birla Vidya Niketan. “Children are definitely not going to be present in full strength if the option is given. One reason is lethargy. Second, since we’re moving into exams now, there is a fear of taking the exam in offline mode. It’s time to move away from the option, even if we can only call them every alternate day, that would also make a difference,” she said.

The hybrid mode has also been taxing for teachers. “A teacher might wake up at 6 am to do household work, then come to school by 8 am and conduct offline classes for a set of students till 2 pm , and then have online classes for another small set in the afternoon and evening, and field calls and messages with doubts and queries by students. It doubles the burden on them. We’re happy that we can reopen and hope that we can move into completely offline classes in a week or so,” said Awadhesh Jha, principal of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya Sector 5 Rohini.

School transport, another crucial factor in getting back to normalcy, is also likely to be limited at the outset. L V Sehgal, principal of Bal Bharati Public School, Ganga Ram Hospital Marg, said this might be introduced later once confidence builds among parents and they approach the school for this. “In November, we had asked parents how many of them would be willing to avail of school bus services since we wanted to plan our routes. Out of more than 5,000 students, parents of only about 300 said they were willing. That was too few for us to consider restarting bus services. With fewer users, the transport fees per head will also be much higher,” he said.