Many said they need time to adhere to Covid protocol. Archive As government schools across the city reopen for class X and XII students on Monday, many private schools said that they will take a few more days to prepare themselves for reopening.
On Sunday, education minister Manish Sisodia held a review meeting with education department officials in anticipation of the reopening. “Everyone is excited and a little nervous at having class 10 and 12 students back in schools from tomorrow for practicals/counselling. All preparations — sanitisers, masks, social distancing —are in place,” he said on Twitter after the meeting.
Attendance for students will be optional and schools will have to obtain written consent from parents.
Many private schools said that they will not open on Monday itself as they need time to adhere to the protocol. Several schools said that they are still in the process of obtaining consent from parents.
“We have sent emails and messages on class WhatsApp groups to parents and we are waiting… It should be completed by Monday. Depending on the number of parents who agree, we will decide in how many classrooms and labs we will accommodate students… Currently, our class X and XII students are in the middle of writing a set of online exams and we don’t want to disrupt that,” said Ashok Pandey, director, Ahlcon group of schools.
In smaller private schools as well, administrations are trying to ensure all precautions are in place before students return. “As many as 90% of the parents have signed the consent form but we are opening only on Wednesday just to make sure that all the SOPs are followed,” said Sushil Dhankar, who runs Hari Vidya Bhavan in Sangam Vihar.