Day 1 of school reopening in Noida, Ghaziabad: Most students give offline classes a miss, parents sceptical

NOIDA/GHAZIABAD: Schools in Noida and Ghaziabad on Monday reopened their doors for students of classes 9 to 12 after nearly four months. However, most institutions met with a tepid response from students and parents.
In Noida, some government schools — Government Girls Inter College, Hoshiyarpur and Rajkiya (government) Inter College, among others — remained shut as they plan to resume operations from August 19 following Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha PGT exams. Meanwhile, some private schools saw little attendance.
Even as school administrations made preparations with Covid protocols such as sanitisation, thermal screening, and social distancing for 50% occupancy in two batches, most parents remained sceptical and did not give consent for their children to attend classes.
Very few students (2%) turned up at the Amity School. Modern School in Sector 11 had over 350 students (both batches combined) turning up against a total of 802 across classes 9-12. “This was nearly 48% attendance on day 1,” said Neeraj Awasthi from Modern School.
Some students, however, were happy to rejoin classes. “It was joyous to be back at school and meet my friends,” said Unnati Pant of Modern School, Noida.
DPS (Noida) saw 30 students of Class 12, out of 33, attend classes for practicals on Monday — registering a 91% attendance. “Going to school after 1.5 years was equivalent to the feeling that one gets when one sees the huge school building for the first time as a little kid,” said Shiuli Gupta of Class 12. Another student, Agrim Saxena said, “The school came alive after a long time. I appreciate the efforts of my school authorities and my teachers.” Vani Datta, a physics teacher at the school welcomed the move. “As a teacher, nothing is more gratifying than seeing students in a real classroom,” she said.
While Amity School had very poor attendance, the faculty hopes the situation will improve as it was only the first day. “We are fully prepared to welcome the students. We have followed all Covid protocols and planned our schedule for conducting the practicals,’ said Renu Singh, principal (Amity School). “It feels like coming back home. I missed my school,” said a student of the school.
Dharamveer Singh, the district inspector of schools, maintained that the turnout was more in the morning as compared to the second batch in the afternoon across many schools. “There was 10-15% attendance in some schools. This was a good response compared to last year when schools had opened in October and hardly anyone turned up. Since it was only the first day of school reopening, we expect more children to join classes soon, especially since junior classes will begin in the coming days,” said Singh.
However, parents are not happy with the move. “We do not agree with the decision of the government to open schools as the threat of the pandemic is still prevalent and a third wave is expected. I know that education is important but not at the cost of our children. The government has not ensured any infrastructure or safety measures for them, especially concerning their vaccination. Instead, it has left it on the schools to ensure protocols,” said Vikas Bansal, who has a daughter in Class 9 at APJ School.
“Any aware parent will not be willing to take the risk of their children’s lives. Already there are reports from Ludhiana and Bengaluru where kids have been infected. So parents are reluctant. Only 10% of kids attended the school today,” said Yatendra Kasana, president of All Noida School Parents Association (ANSPA).
In Ghaziabad, too, schools witnessed a similar situation on Monday. While more students attended classes in the morning shift as compared to the afternoon shift, teaching could not start in many schools on the first day. The students were allowed to enter the school premises after getting a consent letter from their parents.
Subhash Jain, president of Independent Schools’ Federation of India, said: “Only 25-30% of Ghaziabad schools reopened on Monday. The attendance of children was also around 20-25%. The attendance is likely to improve in the coming days when classes 6 to 8 and 1 to 5 will become functional. A majority of parents are still unwilling to send their kids to school and prefer the online mode.”
Sangeeta Mukherjee Roy, principal, DPS (Ghaziabad) in Meerut road, said teaching at her institution is going on in a hybrid model. “On the first day, about 12% attendance was recorded. Students were quite happy coming back to school. This percentage will go up in coming days.”