PUNE: Over 80% of the students, parents and teachers in Maharashtra have shown their willingness to resume offline schooling in a study conducted by the Maharashtra State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT). The survey was taken voluntarily by 2.6 lakh participants and 83% said schools should reopen.
The survey was launched on Friday and shared with various stakeholders for the state government to take an appropriate decision about reopening of schools. The survey had basic questions on name and address details and if schools should be reopened for offline teaching.
Director of SCERT, Dinkar Temkar, said, “On the first three days of the survey, nearly three lakh respondents participated and a huge number of these participants, which was over 80%, were of the opinion that schools should reopen.”
Since March 2020, when the Covid-19 infection spread across the country, schools have been shut and education is being conducted online. In November, schools were reopened for standards IX and X for a brief period before they were shut down in January with a rise in Covid-19 cases. During this period, schools in rural areas reopened till Std VIII but in the urban areas remained online to educate.
Once again, the state government has started the survey to reopen the schools soon. The state government has also issued a notification announcing the guidelines to reopen them in the coming days.
Former director of education, Vasant Kalpande, said students are suffering as a result of schools being closed and it is difficult to say how much learning has been lost.
“Due to pandemic fear, how many more sectors are going to be shut down? It will not be wise to undertake the risk of loss of education and the pandemic. In fact, there should be stress on starting schools from Std I. Like last year, a declaration from parents can be taken,” he said.
Last year, classes from standards I to IV did not start at all. It should restart where the infection rate is low, he added. There was risk even when students are sitting at home. “Considering all this, schools must reopen. International organisations have recommended reopening of schools,” he said.
The reopening will be decided by seven-member committees set up in villages that have been Covid-free for a month.
Along with keeping Covid protocols in place, parental consent is a must to start physical schools. Classes each day cannot exceed four hours and only main subjects will have to be taught.
Each class should not have more than 20 students and attendance is not compulsory. The permissions will be for Classes VIII- XII.
While few schools may reopen from July 15 in rural areas, a decision regarding starting degree colleges offline is still to be taken by the state.
Higher education minister Uday Samant said last week that degree colleges were unlikely to start for at least a month.
