BENGALURU: Classes 6-8 warily reopened on Monday in the offline mode with an encouraging attendance of a little over 50 per cent across the State. As per the state government’s plans, classes are to be held on alternate days with just 50 per cent attending one day and others the next day, over five days a week. Primary and Secondary Education Minister BC Nagesh said a decision on reopening classes 1-5 will be taken after observing classes of 6-12, but did not give any deadline.
The education department reopened offline classes for Classes 9-12 from August 23, which saw a poorer attendance on the first day as compared to that of classes 6-8, but subsequently improved although the confidence among students and parents is yet to return to the pre-pandemic level. On Monday, while some government schools saw less than 50 per cent attendance, some private schools are consolidating statistics for reopening, while a few others decided to open offline classes just twice a week.
Government school teachers told TNIE that a month of remedial classes in person would be necessary to help students bridge the learning gap from the previous year, which was mostly online and not as effective. Girls from a private school said they were thrilled to return to school after a year-and-a-half, mainly because online classes “were boring”, they said.
Manjunath M, principal, Narayana E-Techno School, Adugodi said that hybrid classes for classes 9 and 10 started on Monday where offline classes are held along with live online classes. A survey is being done among parents to elicit their views on reopening Classes 1-5. The attendance for Classes 9-12, which reopened on August 23, was 60 per cent.
WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY
The Department of Public Instruction, reveals that 29.15 per cent of the total 10,46,873 students in class 6, 28.05 per cent of 10,49,662 students in class 7 and 23.22 per cent of 10,147,81 students in class 8 attended school on day one of reopening.