PUNE: Hundreds of students turned up for the first day in school after 18 months on Wednesday in the rural parts of Pune only to be sent back since the district collector late on Tuesday decided to defer the reopening by another fortnight.
Utter confusion prevailed outside these schools as parents, teachers and school staff were unaware of the late order. They then said timely decisions, especially when they impact the students, are necessary.
A headmaster of a ZP primary school in Bhugaon said that they had cleaned up the premises, bought flowers and invited the sarpanch to welcome the students on their first day of school. “However, the order arrived very late at night. While we were able to reach out to some students, many still turned up at school despite the rain and had to be sent back,” he said.
A ZP teacher from Ambegaon said the schools should have reopened on Wednesday.“Most students walk 1-2 km to reach the school. Since the order arrived late, we were unable to communicate it to all the parents because there is a severe network issue in the village. We have been going to their houses periodically to teach but it would have been much better if the schools had reopened. And if they were not going to reopen, then they must have given a clear notification early on so that we would not have wasted so much time and effort in cleaning up and decorating the school,” said the teacher.
Mahendra Ganpule, spokesperson of the Headmasters’ Forum, said it was a waste of time. “The RT-PCR is compulsory for teachers and many would have undergone it just to realise that the schools are not reopening. They didn’t even have special camps for the RT-PCR tests for teachers. Many schools had prepared so much for the reopening and now everything has been wasted. Everybody’s time and efforts are important and the higher-ups must realise this.”
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