Delhi’s private schools take cautious steps towards reopening

It was a quiet return with fewer children and distancing protocols. “School is a little bit different now because we have to wear masks all the time, santitise our hands, keep distance from each other and not share lunch. I am happy to come back, I had not met my friends because my parents would not allow me to go outside. I haven’t got the chance to speak to my friends yet because we have to sit far from each other,” said 11-year-old Siddharth Singh.

According to the school’s owner Kunal Jhamb, around 80% of the students’ parents have given their consent to send children to school, and 60% of those called to school attended on Monday.

“Those who have not given their consent include those attending online classes from their villages. Many of our students are from Bihar and their families have either gone to their villages or are preparing for Chhath Puja, so we are expecting more attendance once that ends. Out first few weeks will be devoted to making children comfortable about being back in school and assessing the level of their abilities so that we can judge the kind of teaching individual children will need,” he said.

Bigger private schools looking to open in the coming week are taking a more cautious approach and have fewer parents willing to send their children to school. Birla Vidya Niketan, which will open for nursery to class VIII on Tuesday, has found that not more than 50% parents are keen.

“We will be opening for them only on Tuesdays and Thursday and the rest of the days it will be online for all of them. The focus will be on sports, art, music and to some extent revision and hands-on activities. There will be no teaching per se. The problem is that it will be in the hybrid mode with very few students in front of the teachers and the rest joining from their laptops, and it’s not very easy for a teacher to focus on both. It has to be conducted in a way that no one is missing out. Maybe gradually, more parents will be encouraged for their children to join in the offline mode,” said principal Minakshi Kushwaha.

At The Indian School, classes VI to VIII will join starting Tuesday for three days a week, for not more than three-and-a-half hours. “Few parents have given consent; for class VIII it’s at about 30%. We’re taking baby steps because we’re also looking at several things including Covid protocol and air pollution levels. We’ve told the parents’ body that we need their help during dispersal time since it gets harder to maintain distancing protocol then and children go into groups, so it helps to have a few more hands supervising,” said principal Tania Joshi.

Even at some government schools, not all grades have been called back. At Sarvodaya Co-Ed Vidyalaya Sector 21 Rohini, classes VI to VIII have been reporting around 50-60% attendance so far but the school has not yet called primary grades. “We don’t have the space since our primary wing is still operating as a vaccination centre and our primary teachers are on Covid duty. Given that Diwali was last week and Chhath Puja is this week, we have been seeing satisfactory turnout among class VI to VIII and are expecting better attendance from the 15th,” said principal Sukhbir Singh Yadav.