Week after reopening, govt schools see 12 pc turnout

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 23

The District Education Department is encouraging parents to visit government schools in the city to take stock of the safety measures being adopted by the teachers and management after reopening the schools. The move comes after a marginal increase in the number of students attending schools after their reopening since October 19. The first day footfall of students in the district remained abysmally low but over the week there has been a marginal increase. The student strength in schools remained around 12% a week after reopening.

While there has been a push towards word of mouth information regarding school safety, parents are still unwilling to send their kids to schools in this hour of Covid-19 crisis. “We are taking stock of the situation as we encourage parents to send their wards to school after a thorough satisfaction over our safety methods. The main cause for concern for parents remains the risk of getting infected, for which they seek a ‘guarantee’ from the school heads and principals. It’s a challenge for us to overcome the low turnout and we are looking towards possible solutions. It’s a wait and watch period for all,” said District Education Officer (Secondary) Satinder Bir Singh.

The first day of reopening saw mere 5-10 students in each class attending school. The number of students attending classes has slightly gone up and remained consistent at an average of 10-12. Despite the mandatory Covid-19 testing of all the teachers and staff at government schools, other measures are being adopted to motivate students to come to school.

Mandeep Kaur, principal, Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Mall Road, said students who were coming to school were being encouraged to convince others about the adopted safety measures. “Even teachers are motivating students to get their parents to visit schools. Government schools are running online classes parallel to physical classes for students studying from home,” she added.