Telangana schools reopen with only 21% attendance

The overall attendance recorded in public schools was 27.45 percent whereas private schools witnessed an attendance of 18.35 percent. As many as 32,55,940 students have enrolled this year in private schools and 19,66,234 students have enrolled themselves in public schools excluding residential schools. Of them, only 5,39,674 students attended public schools and 5,97,421 students attended private schools on the first day of school reopening.

School children wearing face masks sit in a government school in Hyderabad (AP)

The highest attendance was recorded in Warangal (34.93%), Rajanna Sircilla (33.84%), Hanamkonda (32.86%), Yadadri Bhongir (28.97%), and Mahabubabad (26.33%). In the state capital Hyderabad, the overall attendance recorded was 21.04 per cent.

Peddapalli (13.82%), Sangareddy (14.49%), Bhupalpally (14.90%), Nagarkurnool (15.64%), and Nalgonda (16.20%) recorded the lowest attendance on Wednesday.

As attendance remained thin on day one, the state health department urged parents to send children to school. Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivasa Rao, while addressing the press, said that nearly 95 percent of the teaching and non-teaching staff in educational institutions have been vaccinated and the rest would be soon vaccinated.

Rao reiterated that the government has taken all possible necessary precautionary measures given the health of children. He said the department is prepared to conduct tests on all students if five or more cases are reported from a single school. Classes will be immediately suspended in such a scenario and treatment would be initiated as per standard protocols, he said as he put the collective responsibility of preventing an outbreak on parents, school management and society.

As per the Telangana High Court’s recent order, private schools have been given an option to hold either offline or online classes or adopt both but told not to force parents to send their children to school. The schools cannot penalise parents for not sending their children and the government cannot penalise schools for not conducting offline classes.

Residential schools will remain shut until further orders from the Court as the government has been asked to file its counter with all the measures taken so far including infrastructural allocations to contain the third wave of Covid-19.