Delhi schools to go fully offline: Principals welcome move, but say it should come into force next month

On Friday, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority decided that schools may do away with the hybrid mode of teaching-learning and move completely offline from April 1, which will coincide with the start of the next academic session. More than two years after the start of the pandemic, this will be the first time that Delhi will be looking at taking this crucial step towards ‘normalcy’.

With the reopening of schools in February, schools were still required to obtain parental consent from students attending offline classes and parents had the option of not sending their children. While most schools are welcoming the decision to move completely offline, they are also questioning why it has been scheduled for more than a month later.

Action Committee for Unaided Recognised Private Schools, an umbrella body of over 2,000 schools, have said that they will be writing to the Lieutenant Governor to bring this forward to March 1 instead. “This will not only allow schools to resume smoothly but will also allow students and parents to regain the confidence before the new session begins,” read a statement from the body.

Sudha Acharya, principal of ITL Public School and Chairperson of the National Progressive Schools Conference, said that one of the primary concerns behind this demand is assessment.

“Why should we be waiting till April? It should have been from Monday itself. What we wanted was to conduct assessment offline and assessment is an important part of schooling. Our exams started today and till class VIII, our tests are just diagnostic, to see understand where the children stand. I had written to parents explaining this, that it’s not promotional, urging them to send the children but still only around 50% came for the exam today. We had wanted to avoid these hybrid exams,” she said.

Schools also say that they wanted to use this time before the next session to get students used to being back to school so that the next year can begin smoothly and without delay.

“We want classes IX and XI to write their exams offline. We also wanted students to begin the next session accustomed to the classroom. When they’re back, it takes for them to adjust, we have to ease them in,” said principal of Mount Abu Public School Jyoti Arora.

However, DAV Public School Pushpanjali Enclave principal Rashmi Biswal anticipates that some parents might be resistant to sending their children to school even in April. “We’re still experiencing resistance. I had wanted to conduct offline examinations for classes VII and VIII but there was quite a bit of resentment from parents, so we moved it online. I don’t know how comfortable they’ll be till the children are vaccinated,” she said.

Once schools open completely offline, they will be looking to resume normal services like bus services. However, this could be a challenge for schools which used to use DTC buses — around 20% of schools — since the state run-public transporter has expressed its inability to provide them buses due to its dwindling fleet. These schools will have to look at tie-ups with private contractors as is done by most other private schools.