Pune Campus Watch: Orientation sessions at schools shift focus from dos and don’ts to returning to normalcy
The orientations are also important for schools to sort out their administrative concerns posed by the pandemic.
4 min read
While orientation sessions at the beginning of an academic year for parents are not new and principals agree that they are more or less “standardised” and rarely change in terms of content or approach, post-pandemic they have assumed great importance. (Representational)“What is considered as a learning loss? It’s when there are two comparable measures, similar teaching year and environment, similar exams. We gauge the loss through 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.
While orientation sessions at the beginning of an academic year for parents are not new and principals agree that they are more or less “standardised” and rarely change in terms of content or approach, post-pandemic they have assumed great importance. The orientation sessions are being used to prepare both the parents and the students for physical school like in the pre-Covid times.
Desai said, “Parents are the key; if they are nervous or apprehensive, it will pass on to the students. Hence, we are using these sessions to set expectations as well as prepare them mentally. Some are very anxious, they feel their 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, orientations have become very important for us as even we are taking notes on the feedback from parents,” said Desai.
The orientations are also important for schools to sort out their administrative concerns posed by the pandemic.
“Earlier, we just assumed parents were all living here and students would come in buses. Now, we are learning that many parents are still in other cities and those who are here, have not committed to send their kids by bus. Usually, our orientation sessions are focussed on general topics like the dos and don’ts, expected conduct of students and parents but this year, we are focusing on encouraging parents to send their kids for offline school and in school buses. It is imperative to return to normalcy and our sessions would focus on why this is needed for the students,” she said.
Meanwhile, not just for the parents but even the sessions for the students are different this year. Some schools are offering virtual tours of school premises and have prepared short videos to introduce the concept of school to the toddlers who are yet to see a school in person.
Nila Mehta, whose daughter Riddhi will be joining junior KG this year said, “For my four-and-half-year-old, it was very exciting because she doesn’t realize what a school actually means. For her, it was a table in front of a laptop on which she could see her teacher till now. But last week, the school organised a parent-student orientation where a virtual tour was given of the school and the teachers and the support staff had recorded messages for the students. They had slides on fun activities and playing in the school playground, which got my daughter excited. Next week, they have been called in for their I-card photo session in school and some kind of play session has also been organised.”
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