NEW DELHI: After two years, city schools are set to welcome students back to classrooms and also, to their long lost friends. Considering the long-pending demands of the teachers’ and the parents’ fraternities, Delhi’s Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday stated that prolonged school closures have resulted in learning losses for students of all ages. He also noted that the students suffered socially and emotionally.
In phased manner
Classes for grade nursery to VII will resume from February 14. Sisodia stated, “Since the positivity rate has dropped significantly and a majority of students in Classes IX-XII have been vaccinated, we are in a position to relax restrictions. Schools and colleges have been asked to prepare for the return of students in this sequence. The administration must ensure that all staff are fully vaccinated at the campus, especially those dealing with students of nursery to Class VIII.”
Bharat Arora, general secretary, Action Committee of Unaided Private Schools, said, “Reopening of schools for Classes IX-XII is welcome, but the decision is disappointing as well. Schools should have been reopened for all classes and all levels, irrespective of the vaccine status or other factors.”
He added, “We should realise that many other cities across the country and the world have reopened schools for all classes. Once again, all private schools are set to reopen for Classes IX to XII but we expect to welcome back other classes at the earliest as well.”
Meanwhile, Vibha Singh, member of the Municipal Corporation Teachers’ Association, said, “We are happy because the children will now return to the schools, especially the ones who had no one around them to guide in terms of studies. The kindergarten and nursery students have not even seen schools at all. We are more excited to see them coming back to us. It is like the family will reunite.”
Echoing the opinion, Urmila Sharma, principal of Arvacheen Public School, said, “I thank the government for taking this decision finally, but it is a request that the schools should not close now. We are ready to take all precautions and the government may impose strict rules for us to follow. But it will be difficult for us to see the schools closing once again, God forbid.”
College classes off-line
Deputy CM Sisodia said that colleges have been closed for a long time due to Covid, and the college and campus life of the students has been reduced to a single room in the house. “As a result, it has been decided that all colleges in Delhi will reopen on February 7, and studies will be completely shifted from online to off-line mode. In this sequence, it was decided at the DDMA meeting that skill training institutes and coaching institutes could also reopen on Monday,” added Sisodia. However, there was not much to please teachers and the students of Delhi University, which satted that it will only conduct online classes.