HYDERABAD: Even as the state has permitted
schools to conduct full-day classes for students of class 9 and above, several schools across the city have decided to start offline classes only for few hours a day from February 1.
The school managements said that there is no clarity on how many are willing to attend physical classes. A few also added that they will not be providing transportation or lunch to students.
“We will be conducting physical classes only for three hours i.e. 9 am to 12 pm,” said Simi Nagi, principal, Pallavi Model School adding that online classes will be conducted during the afternoon.
She said that the school has already directed teachers to not force any parent to send their kids to school as it is not mandatory.
“We are sure that class 10 and class 12 students will be inclined to attend physical classes, but I don’t think many class 9 students will show interest especially because their final exams are scheduled to be held in the third week of February,” she added.
S Narasimha Reddy, principal, Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur, said that they too have decided to conduct classes only for half a day.
“An alternate day student will be asked to come to school and classes will be conducted from 8 am 12.30 pm. A student attending online class from home will also be part of the classroom virtually as the class will be telecasted live,” said Reddy.
He added that the school has also decided not to provide lunch to students as they are not quite sure how many would be willing to eat outside during the pandemic.
“Once students come to school, we will discuss with them and if they are willing to have lunch at school, we will provide it at a later stage,” he added.
Many schools are yet to reach out to parents to seek their consent on sending their children to schools and added they will be reaching out to parents on Saturday or next week.