BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government’s decision to allow schools to reopen offline teaching for classes 6 to 12 from September 1 has triggered a debate between parents and school authorities.
While schools argue that reopening campuses is a must since the prolonged closure was affecting academics, parents wonder why the government buckled under pressure from schools and allowed reopening — that too from class 6 -- when fear of the third wave looms.
MP is one of the few states to reopen classes 6 to 8. Most other states have allowed offline teaching for classes 9-12.
The second wave had barely subsided when the debate began on reopening of schools. Schools kept demanding that the state allow reopening, even threatening agitation unless it agreed.
It was a catch-22 situation. Schools had indeed been shut for nearly one and a half years. On the other hand, however, the government was cautioning people to be cautious of the third wave.
Under relentless demands from schools, the state government began with the opening higher classes but with restrictions — 50% strength and once or twice a week. Schools weren’t happy with this and said they couldn’t open campuses for so few students.
Attendance in private schools was dismal -— most getting barely 5%. Government schools, where many students may not be able to afford offline education, had better attendance.
A senior official of the school education department told TOI that opening campuses was important to “save academics”. “Online teaching was not able to provide the level of education needed for students,” he remarked.
The parentss association, however, feels the government took the decision in haste. “Parents are not sending their children even for classes 9 and above. In such a situation, I can’t understand the logic of reopening schools. I can say that the government buckled under pressure from schools,” said Kamal Vishwakarma president, MP Parents’ Association.
School associations felt that keeping schools closed would adversely affect students. “How long will you keep schools closed? One day you have to open them. What is wrong if the government has decided to open them from September 1? Covid cases have been dropping in the state. What do we need to wait for?” asked Babu Thomas, secretary, Association of Unaided Private Schools.
Thomas said that the state government has given the option to send their kids. “Parents’ consent is still there somewhere there was a need to take a step to open the campuses. For resuming school activities such a decision was required. Else, one more year would have gone, and academics would be completely stopped,” said Thomas.
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