Chandigarh, November 28

Parents of students are not in favour of reopening private schools even eight months after the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, the attendance in government schools is also dwindling day by day for regular teaching.

The Independent Schools’ Association president, HS Mamik, said, “Parents are not in favour of reopening schools. Only students of board exam classes will be called to schools if their examinations are conducted physically.”

“We have checked with parents of students through telephone and found that only 10 to 15 per cent are willing to send their wards to schools. There will be no other survey as of now as we are fully aware of parents’ concerns,” he added.

The parent of a student, Mamta Kaushik, said, “I will not be sending my child to school at no cost until Covid vaccine is available. We cannot afford to compromise children’s safety. We will be adapting to new form of online education till a proper solution is available.”

The UT Education Department had allowed private schools to open while following instructions given by the department or amend these as per their requirement. However, schools have to adhere to the SOPs issued by the Ministry of Education. The department had decided to reopen government schools in a graded manner for students of Classes IX to XII for regular teaching.

An official said, “These days the attendance is thin in view of resurgence of Covid cases in the UT. It has dropped to 1,000 students from over 3,000 from the past few days in government schools. It is barely two per cent of the total students’ strength.” — TNS