Back to normalcy after Covid break, parent orientation sessions shift focus

WHILE PARENT orientations are not a new phenomenon for schools at the beginning of an academic year, principals agree that they are more or less “standardised” and rarely change in terms of content or approach. However, ahead of the new academic year in April for CBSE-board affiliated schools and later for other boards, school principals said that parent orientations this year have assumed a very important role. It is being used as a means to prepare parents and students for attending physical school like the pre-Covid times albeit after a gap of two years.

“What is considered as a learning loss? It’s when there are two comparable measures, similar teaching year and environment, similar exams. We gauge loss by tests and it would be fair to call it a loss only if the parameters are similar. The Covid years brought in a lot of changes, there is no comparison to previous years and hence we don’t think parents should look at any gaps as a learning loss. It was a new experience,” said Shilpa Desai, vice principal of the Sanskriti School, Undri as she addressed a group of parents of pre-primary and primary school last week.

“Parents are the key, if they are nervous or apprehensive, it will pass to students. Hence we are using these sessions to set expectations as well as prepare them mentally. Some are very anxious, they feel kids have missed a lot during online sessions and want us to start academics immediately. Others are concerned about lack of social interaction especially in younger children. Hence this year, the orientations have become very important for us as even we are taking notes on feedback from parents,” said Desai.