PUNE: Maharashtra State Primary Teachers Committee (MSPTC) has decided to start a postcard campaign urging the state government to reopen schools for students from Std I to VII.
The committee has told students, parents and teachers to send postcards to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray urging him to reopen the primary schools. Teachers in rural India have said the school closure is affecting students in primary classes the most as many are first-generation learners and due to no support of family during online classes, they do not even know how to read or write the alphabet.
“As of now, malls, bazaars and tourist places everything has opened for the public and children are also seen in the crowd but schools are still closed. Students are suffering due to a lack of physical school reopening. It is important to reopen schools for the students’ mental, emotional and social well-being. We have requested people to ensure that the postcards are not derogatory as our aim is to urge the CM to take a positive stand in reopening primary schools. We have urged teachers to buy the postcards and distribute them among parents and students,” Vijay Kombe, general secretary of the committee, said.
A teacher from ZP school in Khed taluka said the students who are in Std II this year are completely blank. “When they joined in Std I, the pandemic had started and hence there was no school.,Now, they are in Std II where they are supposed to learn tougher things. But, when these students cannot even recognise numbers or letters, then how can we teach them words, sentences or basic mathematics. When they enrol in Std I, we hold their hands and make them write. But now they have no clue. The same is the case with the students who have joined the Std I now. There is a need to immediately reopen school or we are failing our children in their basic right to education,” the teacher said.
