Kolkata: Many schools return to physical classes

KOLKATA: The weekend spells of rain which ended the heat spell in Kolkata has prompted several city schools to resume their usual physical classes.
On Monday, Vivekananda Mission School issued a notice stating that physical classes will resume for the school from Wednesday except for classes II, III and IV.
Calcutta Girls’ School will also switch back to physical classes from Wednesday. In a notice to parents on Monday, the school said, “Due to improvement in weather conditions, we will be resuming offline classes from Wednesday, May 4, 2022 in order to get children into the habit of attending school.” Calcutta Boys School, however, decided to continue having online classes this week till the summer holidays start on May 10. A teacher said, “It will be difficult to update schedule so frequently as that could cause confusion for the parents.”
On Friday, even before the first spell of rain, South Point issued a notice informing guardians that the school would restart physical classes from Monday, ending nearly a week of online classes due to the heat.
Several other schools in meetings on Monday have decided to continue with the truncated offline classes and early dispersals. The reasons, however, varied.
Heritage principal Seema Sapru said the school would follow its earlier plan of operating on truncated hours. “Rather than dispersing our students at the regular time of 3.45pm, we have brought forward the dispersal time to 2.15pm. We have not yet decided to return to the regular dispersal time because despite the rains, it is still very hot for the children to play outdoors and engage in physical activities.” The school summer holidays will begin on May 20, she said.
Devi Kar, director of Modern High School, said the school would stick to its original plan adopted when the heat spell started — to operate on truncated hours and follow early dispersal.
Meena Kak, director of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, said, “We have decided to continue with the schedule we have adopted before the rain. Till class VIII, we are having early dispersals and those students will be continuing with hybrid classes. Since the school is a board examination centre, we had decided that on the days of exams, the rest of the students will have online classes.“
Vijaylaxmi Kumar, principal of Asian International School, said: “We have decided to stick to our plan of having truncated class hours and early dispersals since the parents have been notified.”