Pune campus watch: Full-fledged reopening from tomorrow but schools unsure of high attendance

At Priyadarshini Group of School’s Bhosari branch, principal Gayatri Jakkan said that attendance for the half-day classes has been about one-third, especially for classes from 1 to 7.

“I think parents are adopting a wait and watch policy as of now, they are checking what is happening to the children who are coming to school and taking feedback from their parents. While we are happy to see children on campus, this indecision from parents has left us with several logistical and manpower issues. Hybrid classes are still fine, the teacher keeps a laptop or device on in classrooms and teaches simultaneously. But the issue is not restricted to the classroom alone. What about school buses? We have an external operator and right now he is not able to manage routes with 30 per cent capacity, it is not financially viable for him. And because he is not operating buses on some routes, some parents are not able to send kids to schools regularly. It is a two-way issue,” she said.

Chandrika Banerjee, Magarpatta Public School principal, said that attendance from class 8 onwards is almost 100 per cent but low for primary classes. “Thankfully, the issue of managing bus routes did not arise since the school follows a ‘walk to school and walk to home’ policy with most students coming from within Magarpatta city township. But they are experiencing other issues since attendance is not optimum,” the principal said.

“I think it is because younger children are not vaccinated against Covid-19 that they are not coming to school. Many parents have moved back to their hometowns since they were probably anticipating that the schools might begin only next year. For the lower classes, we are running a hybrid model while for older students, the school is run in two batches. While there was a lot of enthusiasm and demand to begin school for younger children, I think it will take time before they come back to school. Even if the government is now allowing full-time school, it will take time to alleviate the fears of parents,” she said.

The figures available with the PMC education department reflect a similar story. There are over 270 PMC schools and 750 private schools in the city and average attendance figures were between 30 to 40 per cent in primary sections.

Schools are now conducting several activities to encourage students to return to classrooms. Orientation sessions, school visits by parents and reviewing Covid SOPs, planning cultural functions and events in schools to bring students in to participate and more are being planned.

At CES’s Prerana Primary School, Nigdi, many of these efforts were taken in the weeks preceding the school reopening announcement. Principal Seema Mahajan confirmed that the attendance figures are in the range of 70 per cent.

“A lot of factors differ, from school to school and parent to parent. Firstly, we personally connected to each parent and made them equal stakeholders, we didn’t accept responsibility alone. We told them to start counselling kids at home, prepare them mentally to come to school, wear masks, not share tiffins. Our strategy was simple, 50-50 per cent partnership where parents do their bit at home and we ensure it is followed here. I think personally connecting to each parent and counselling them worked for us,” she said.