Schools find it hard to maintain social distancing

Coimbatore: Panchayat union primary school (PUPS) in Kuniyamuthur has 1,065 students in Class I–V. As the school has only seven classrooms accommodating over 200 children in each class, it is difficult to maintain social distancing among students in the class. This has been the case of many primary schools in the district that are facing space crunch after the reopening of schools for all classes.
“We asked only half of the students of Class III and V to come to school on Monday as we don’t want classes to be crowded. In this way, we can have students only once in a week,” a teacher from PUPS Kuniamuthur said. However, many private schools chose to invite all the students and conduct school for half a day. They say that all the students need to come to class on daily basis after reopening as alternate day classes may not work.
“It may not be possible to take online classes for half of the class and offline class for another section of students of the same class as it will require two teachers a class. Therefore, we chose to have all the students in the school,” a teacher from a private school at Singanallur said. “We could manage on Monday as less children had turned up on the first day of reopening. But we will have to make alternate arrangements when more students would turn up in the coming days. Continuity will be affected in the alternate day classes which may not serve the purpose of offline classes,” the teacher said.
Speaking to TOI, district chief education officer N Geetha said schools have been asked to try if they can take classes in two shifts a day. A few students may be asked to come in the morning and another few in the evening.