MUMBAI: Over 10 lakh primary and secondary students in the city can return to blackboards and classrooms as their physical schools reopen on Wednesday.
The Omicron fear and Christmas holidays, however, is likely to push inclass learning to January. Their higher secondary counterparts are in schools from October and their numbers are growing.
The state had permitted reopening classes1-7 from December1 but the concerns over the Omicron variant led the BMC to defer the reopening to December 15. Schools had conducted parents meetings to gauge the response. “Majority of parents want to wait till next month before taking a decision on sending children to school,” said the principal of a Mahim school.
As schools will begin to close for winter vacations from December 18, principals, too, are of the opinion that physical classes should start only from January. A majority of the 2,261 private aided and unaided schools may either reopen in January or conduct some classes in a few days before closing for Christmas holidays. “We will reopen on Thursday. The response from class 5-7 students is better than primary students,” said a Chembur school principal.
Some schools said that as online classes have been streamlined, they will reopen in January. “Parents are not willing to send children to school. They are comfortable learning online,” said a teacher of class 3 from a Malad school.
As all the over 4,000 schools in the city have reopened for class 8-10, Covid-19 protocols are already in place. With the attendance of class 8-10 students rising after a dip following the Omicron scare in November-end, schools are focusing on the higher secondary students for now. “We have prepared the timetable of all students attending online and offline classes. By January, we expect a rise in students attending physical schools,” said a principal of a school in Byculla.
Most of the 1,159 civic schools will reopen from Wednesday to welcome back 2.9 lakh primary and secondary students. Civic officials said schools have been sanitised and masks have been procured for the students. “Though the students will proceed on vacation from December 24, the eight to nine days will help them acclimatise to physical schools,” said the official.
