HYDERABAD: The pandemic has pushed out scores of students out of education, but the brunt of it is also being faced by the management of schools. Ever since the Covid- 19 outbreak, several schools in the city have witnessed a drop in enrolments. Parents say the pandemic-induced economic slump and the ‘inefficient’ online classes are discouraging them from sending their wards to schools, while some have even disenrolled their children for the current academic year.
Speaking to Express, Deepal Sabo Adappa, the owner of Eurokids, Himayatnagar, said, “There has been a drastic decrease in the new admissions for this academic year. Additionally, many parents have also deregistered their children from school. While we had to completely shut our playschool, around 70 per cent of our students in nursery, LKG and UKG have also decreased. The condition is the same for most pre-schools in the city, resulting in the shutdown of quite a few of them. As the students’ number has decreased, schools are hardly about to sustain themselves.”
The situation is just not restricted to the primary schools, many other schools which have upper-primary and higher-secondary levels are also reeling through a similar crisis. “This mass discontinuation of schools is happing due to several reasons, and it is leaving children deprived of schools, losses to school management and job loss to teachers,” said Shekhar Rao, a member of Telangana Recognised School Management Association (TRSMA).
Plight of parents V Mala, who works for a wellness and beauty service company, said, “I am the sole breadwinner of my house after the pandemic. I hardly get 30 per cent of the income that I use to get before Covid. Due to this, I was forced to disenroll both my children from school. Even if I pay the school fee, I can’t afford to buy them new phones to study on.” A father of a three-year-old child, on the condition of anonymity, said “I haven’t enrolled my child in school this year as there are only online classes now, which are not quite the same as the physical classes. I am planning to send him to school, once the schools open up. By that time, I hope to come out of the financial crisis as well.”
Even private schools face closure
Several private schools in the city have been closed citing their inability to pay monthly rents. Many of these institutions are also seeking financial help from the State government to continue functioning.