Although class ten students are yet to complete their board examinations, several coaching institutes and colleges have begun conducting online bridge classes for classes eleven and twelve.
In fact, many integrated pre-university colleges have admitted students based on their preparatory scores and have already begun conducting classes for first year students.
“We completed the admission for our son in January. The college has now told us that they will begin online classes from May. Our son spends at least four hours a day preparing for the SSLC examination. In addition to that, it will become very taxing for him if he has to attend these online classes for PU as well,” said a parent of a 15-year-old, who did not want to name the college his son was enrolled in.
Another group of institutions, Deeksha, which offers integrated coaching for pre-university (PU) classes and prepares students for competitive examinations, has started a free 21-day online bridge course in order to help students who have completed their 10th grade to ‘transition smoothly into science stream of PUC’.
When asked why the course was started although class ten examinations of various boards are yet to be completed, a representative said that it was only meant for students who were “prepared” and ready for these classes. They said that 1,500 students had registered for the course, and the online classes commenced on April 15.
S.R. Umashankar, Principal Secretary of the Department of Primary and Secondary Education, said that coaching classes do not come under their purview and hence they could not stop tutorials from conducting classes.
Mental health professionals, however, have cautioned educational institutions against pushing children who are already worried about the effects of the pandemic and the lockdown on their academic careers.
K. John Vijay Sagar, Additional Professor, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NIMHANS, said that conducting the next academic year’s classes at this time was not a good idea. “We all have to accept that the academic year will be delayed. Colleges should not pressurise students and parents to attend the online classes,” he said.
He added that the lockdown will have an adverse impact on the mental health of students, and such a move by college managements will impose a great deal of stress on them.