Most parents are considering leaving them on their own. Others still have two opinions on whether to send their children to school buses and pool cars as before. Pool car owners and school bus operators have very few takers.
Oshi Ghosh, a Class X student, is very excited to be back in her new senior class class and meet old friends at Mahadevi Birla Vishwa Academy. So has his mother, who was among the very few who were paying the carpool operator the 50% fee he had been waiting for the day for all these months. But when the actual day has arrived, they are of two minds.
“Her board exams are from next week and I have no intention of sending her to the carpool yet. I plan to leave her in my car for a few days, with her going to school in the next few weeks. Sujata Ghosh, a resident of Kasba, said, “We will take a decision on whether to send him to the carpool or not later.”
Single mother Tamali Choudhary is also going through the same dilemma, though she has paid school bus fees for her son at DPS Ruby Park till December this year.
“I am still shivering at the thought of the Covid situation our city was in, two months after the school opened in February. I had opted for offline studies and thankfully my child was safe. Even now, I will send my son to school, but I will avoid sending him on the school bus to reduce the chances of infection,” said Chowdhary, a resident of Madurdah.
There are also a large number of parents, such as Sinjini Choudhury of Santoshpur and Kishalaya Basu of Behala, who have dropped their children – both students from South Point – in pool cars and school buses to avoid additional charges. At least he doesn’t intend to register them for this session.
Sudip Dutta, secretary of the Pool Car Owners Welfare Association, said that hardly any parents are contacting him and out of the 3,500-odd pool cars registered in Kolkata, South and North 24 Parganas and Howrah, barely 1%-2% are actually Can go on Tuesday. ,
“I have personally received only one query from a parent till now. This is also the case for most operators, whom very few parents are approaching for resumption of services. School timings of different classes are also acting as a deterrent for some people. But with most drivers, helpers and ayahs going to other businesses, there will be a huge shortage,” said Dutta.
Anurag Agarwal, who operates the city’s largest school bus fleet, also shared similar sentiments as he indicated that very few school buses may actually start operating, as very few students actually choose them. are. Private bus owners are planning to increase their fleet on routes to major schools, colleges and universities from Monday. However, they said they would wait for a week to assess the response and decide on further course of action.
(with inputs from Dwaipayana Ghosh)
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