NEW DELHI: After shutting the schools for nearly a week due to worsening air quality in the national
capital, the Delhi Government on Wednesday announced resumption of physical classes in all educational institutes from Monday. However, The British School Society in Chanakyapuri has already started the onsite classes from November 23.
“We’ve taken a special approval from the Delhi government to reopen schools. We have a centralised air conditioning system and installed air purifying filters in all corridors and classrooms for the safety of students and to tackle pollution,” said an official from the school administration.
He added, “We have conveyed the same to parents and it is not compulsory to attend physical classes as we are following the blended mode policy of the government and taking both offline as well as online classes.”
“As mentioned in our communication yesterday, we had been constantly following up with the authorities to get agreement for students to attend school onsite and are super pleased to inform you that this has been successful. This means, we have a special agreement to have our students come into the school premises from tomorrow, Tuesday, 23 November. We know that with state-of-art filtration systems at school, our community is better served being here in school,” read a message sent by the school to all parents.
Meanwhile, the reopening of all schools in Delhi received mixed response from parents and teachers.“We are happy that school is reopening because there is already a huge learning gap developed among the students due to year-long shut down of schools. The online classes can’t match the chalk and board teaching,” said Shehnaz, a parent.
However, the Delhi Parents’ Association opposed the move. “The government has taken the decision without consulting parents and stakeholders and it is putting the lives of small kids at stake because both pollution and covid is not over in Delhi,” said Aparajita Gautam, president of DPA.