Only over 9,000 students were present, against 2.38 lakh-odd expected.THE STATE government’s decision to reopen schools for students of Classes IX to XII was met with a poor response, as a majority of students stayed away on the first day owing to the coronavirus scare.
Vishal Solanki, commissioner (education), Maharashtra, said over 3,500 schools started across the state and over one lakh students attended classes. The actual number of schools in the state is over 15,000 with around 60 lakh students enrolled in four classes.
In Pune district, while schools were shut in city areas of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad civic bodies, in the rest of the district, 215 out of 1,246 schools reopened, said zilla parishad education officer Ganpat More.
More also said 9,431 students were present, against 2.38 lakh-odd expected. He added that there were several reasons behind the low turnout, including confusion over guidelines and fear among parents regarding the pandemic, stray cases of Covid-19 emerging in villages and, in some cases, poor planning as schools reopened before mandatory RT-PCR tests were conducted for teachers.
Most education experts said fear of the virus kept students away from school.
“We started schools without any expectation of turnout, so all of this is a learning experience. We are still getting the numbers from different pockets. Also, it is true that RT-PCR tests of teachers are pending, which will be done by December 1 for all. We expect the numbers to go up by then,” Solanki said.
A table shared by the office of the education minister showed that there are nearly 1,74,299 teachers and 54,311 support staff in schools across the state, who are expected to undergo Covid-19 testing. Out of this, only 73,815 teachers have undergone testing, and 153 have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Most education experts said while fear of the virus kept students away from schools, in many parts of the state, compulsory RT-PCR tests for teachers meant that schools could not open since rural areas have limited testing capacity and teachers have been given slots for later dates.