Nagpur: Coaching institutes owners in the city say they have received a strong response from students regardless of whether they have physically reopened or in the process of collecting consent forms. Many of the classes are reopening from February first week to give even outstation students enough time to make arrangements for accommodation.
With big ticket competitive exams just around the corner, it is not surprising that students want to make the most of physical classroom teaching.
Rajnikant Bondre, director of Sneha Classes, said that over 90% of his students have submitted consent forms. “We are starting from February first week and the response so far has been terrific. All arrangements have been made for ensuring sanitization of premises and preparation have been made to receive students who would be back after a long time,” said Bondre.
Permission to reopen coaching institutes in city had come through on January 18. But many coaching institutes decided to defer the reopening date so that outstation students can make arrangements.
Sameer Phale, director of Dr Phale Medical Entrance Institute, said that some outstation students are coming back, while others are still in the process of finalizing on accommodation. “We have decided to start our batches in a phased manner. Priority will be given to the batch that is appearing for exams in the coming months. After a few weeks we will start the other batches,” said Phale.
Sarang Upganlawar, director of ICAD Institute, said there can’t be a replacement for physical mode of teaching. “Online teaching is at best assisting the physical mode of teaching. There is no way people can rely completely on that. I had recently spoken to a student who had downloaded a popular mobile coaching app. She said that app has not been operated for almost a month now. Children by default need physical mentoring and coaching,” said Upganlawar, who too is starting classes from second week of February.
Meanwhile, Allen Career Institute (Nagpur) has resumed physical classes for students. Ashutosh Hisaria, centre head of the institute, said, “There was a great deal of excitement among students and parents when permission to start classroom coaching was issued after a long gap of 10 months. To ensure that not a single day’s study is lost, many students arrived for the classes on the very first day and classes were organized following Covid-19 safety rules.”