Unlike schools in cities, rural and semi-rural parts of the state are recording higher physical attendance
With offline classes resuming on Monday in upper primary schools, students of classes VI to X and pre-university now have the option of physically reporting to classes. While schools in urban areas, where access to infrastructure for e-learning is stronger, are reporting lower attendance, this is not the case in rural areas.
In fact, many schools in rural and semi-rural areas have either stopped online learning for classes VI to X, or are considering this option as they are registering higher physical attendance, management members said. While the state government has ordered school managements to conduct both online and offline classes for students, principals and teachers, especially in rural schools, they said they were finding it difficult to comply.
“We do not have enough teachers to conduct classes both online and offline. Some teachers complained that they were being given more work as they had to handle both the classes,” said a principal. In compliance with the COVID-19 SOPs, schools with high enrollment are conducting physical classes in multiple batches to ensure that social distancing norms are being followed.
Lokesh Talikatte, president of the state unit, Association of Accredited Unaided Private Schools, Karnataka, said that many schools had seen very high attendance in high schools and attendance in upper primary classes was also expected to increase. “It is pointless to conduct online classes when attendance in physical classes is high. Schools are not able to conduct both types of classes,” he said.
Not all parents are happy with this decision. Shalini S, a software engineer whose daughter studies in class IX in a private school, said, “I am teaching my daughter at home and she attends virtual classes. I don’t want him to physically go to school until his classmates’ parents have taken his dose of vaccine. School management should ensure that they conduct online classes when the percentage of students benefitted is small,” she said.
On the other hand, many private schools in urban areas have almost abolished physical classes. They did not open on Monday, citing poor response from some parents who are unwilling to send their children to school.
D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, was of the opinion that the government could not insist on schools conducting both classes. “In many private schools, even the parents of 40% of the students have not paid the fees. It is very difficult to run a school in such circumstances, and the government cannot expect us to run classes both online and offline,” he said.
.