Noida: Online class order sparks confusion, not just among schools, parents too

NOIDA: The sudden order to close schools up to Class VIII triggered confusion on Friday morning as some schools suspended physical classes but many others did not as they were not prepared to make an immediate switch to the online mode and even sent buses to pick up students.
In the morning, buses of many schools were seen plying on the roads of both Noida and Greater Noida. Not prepared for the sudden shift, some schools even decided to stay shut on Friday. Among them was Ursuline Convent in Greater Noida. “As per the government order received just now, the schools have been asked to conduct online classes due to air pollution from 4th to 8th November for Classes Nursery-VIII. As the teachers need time to plan online classes, hence, tomorrow (4th November) will be a holiday for students of Nursery-VIII. Students of Classes IX-XII will come to school for regular classes,” a text message from the school to parents on Thursday night read.
On Friday, the education department clarified that playschools would also hold online classes for now.
Most schools that stayed open continued with physical classes. Amity International School informed parents that they would start online classes only from Monday. “Since we received the message late, we decided to keep the school open on Friday. The school will remain closed as usual on Saturday and Sunday. Online classes will start from Monday,” said Renu Singh, the Amity principal.
Shiv Nadar School texted parents that buses would come as usual to pick up students. “Keeping in mind the late hour, we have decided not to close the school, but to keep it open. Buses will ply, as usual.”
For some schools, however, the shift to online classes was not that difficult. “Since the pandemic and lockdowns, all infrastructure for online classes were anyway kept intact at our school, just in case such a situation arises again. The students were counselled in the first period about the sudden change from offline to online and the reasons behind it,” said Aparajita Dasgupta, the director of Brahmanand Public School in Noida.
Government schools, however, feared they would be hit the hardest by the district administration’s order.
Many principals pointed out that their students, most of whom come from humble backgrounds, lacked phones and laptops for online classes. “Some students use their parents’ phones for online classes. So, live classes on Google Meet or similar platforms are not always possible. We have made WhatsApp groups for each class and share video lessons via them. When students seek clarifications, the teachers reply to them on the group itself,” said Sapna Mishra, an assistant teacher at the Government Junior High School in Sector 12.
But it’s not only schools who were caught unawares by the order. In the absence of any clarity from some schools, parents kept enquiring throughout the day if they needed to send their children for physical classes.
It was all the more a concern for working parents. Sunil Pratap Singh, a general manager at a public sector undertaking, said he had to send his daughter along with his wife — a teacher at a school — as there was no one to look after the 10-year-old.
“My daughter studies in Class V of a private school in Sector 122. On Thursday night, we were told that online classes would be held from 11am to 1.30pm on Friday. Both my wife and I are not at home in the morning. Since there was nobody to look after my child at home, my wife took her to the workplace. My daughter attended her online classes from there. But this is not a viable option,” said Singh, a resident of Antriksh Golf View 2.
Jitendra Kumar and his wife Boskey Tiwari were faced with a similar challenge. “My daughter is a KG student at Somerville School. On Thursday night, we were told that classes will remain suspended on Friday. But in the morning, we received another message that Friday’s class will be held on Saturday. We will have to manage on Saturday, but we don’t know how long such an arrangement can continue,” Kumar, a resident of Mahagun Moderne in Sector 78, said. Kumar said that with offices opening up fully, working parents had little option but to take their children to workplaces. “Most organisations now want their employees in office. When that is the case, how will we keep our child alone at home?”
While some parents were told about online classes on Thursday night, they did not receive any link the next morning. “On Thursday night, we were told that online classes would be held from Friday. But, we did not receive any link this morning. So, there was no class,” said Alok Singh of Alpha I in Greater Noida.
There was no improvement in the air quality on Friday. While Noida recorded an AQI of 406, Greater Noida clocked 425 and Ghaziabad 411 — all in the ‘severe’ category. Gufran Beig, founder and project director of the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), said after November 5, local surface winds and better ventilation conditions are likely to improve the AQI in NCR.