According to teachers, with hybrid mode of learning still available, many parents and students are preferring to attend school online. (Express File) Almost a month into resumption of offline school for all classes, only 54 per cent students are actually attending classes physically, data collated by the Education Department of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) showed.
As per the data, out of a total of 6,58,299 students studying in 2,278 schools, 4,21,713 students had consent from parents to attend offline school. But when it came to actually attending the school physically, only 3,55,917 students are turning up, the data revealed.
According to teachers, with hybrid mode of learning still available, many parents and students are preferring to attend school online. According to BMC’s education department, there are several reasons for the low attendance, including students being outstation with their parents and lack of adequate transport facility.
BMC education officer, primary section, Rajesh Kankal, said, “More than Covid fear, there are several other factors contributing to this. There are still many who migrated out of Mumbai and have not returned yet. More so, with online mode of learning still being made available as per the directives, many are preferring it. It was also pointed out to us how non-availability of school buses is causing transport issues.”
Currently schools are running offline classes for a limited time and the plan is to bring back regular school hours, which, in turn, is expected to increase the attendance.
Among other details collated by the BMC education department, the vaccination data shows that 147 of teachers in its schools are still not inoculated against Covid-19. Out of a total of 17,616 teachers, including school principals, 16,553 have been vaccinated with two doses whereas 2,852 have completed booster doses too. As many as 916 teachers have completed only the first dose yet.
In the case of students’ vaccination, BMC has made good progress. Out of 37,759 students who are eligible for Covid vaccine, parental consent was acquired for 27,907 students. While 25,535 have been administered with the first dose, 2,519 have completed both doses.
After vaccines were made available for children from the age group of 15 to 18 years, BMC education department started a vaccination drive for its own students who are eligible for the shots. These students, with the consent of their parents, were taken to nearby vaccination centres by the respective schools. “Our focus is now on those whose parents have not given consent yet. By way of creating awareness, importance of Covid vaccine is put forth before such parents,” said Kankal.
Schools were initially allowed to start offline operations for all classes at the beginning of December 2021 but were asked to shift to online mode again in January after a fresh surge in Covid cases. Following a brief break, schools restarted offline operations on January 24.
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