Teachers at private schools were busy on Monday forming online class groups, which had been disbanded more than a year ago after the pandemic-induced closure of the campuses ended, and preparing a timetable for remote learning.
Online classes are back as the state government has ordered all schools to be closed for a week from Monday because of the heat spell.
A fresh timetable minus the co-scholastic periods is being prepared to reduce screen time, officials at private schools said.
Teachers are collecting phone numbers of students to form new online groups.
In one school, a group of teachers and the principal were busy till late on Monday evening rearranging the timetable so online classes can start on Tuesday.
“Usually it takes about seven days to prepare a timetable for 160-odd teachers. We had that ready much in advance (before the start of the new academic session), but now we have to prepare a new one within a day. In the usual timetable, we have eight periods. For online classes, we are preparing a timetable with five periods,” said John Stephen, acting principal, La Martiniere for Boys.
The state government’s sudden announcement that all schools, colleges and universities would be closed for a week from Monday meant that the schools had to draw up fresh plans overnight to transition from physical to online classes.
“I had told my teachers that they had a week to form class groups for online classes (because the government had announced that the summer recess would start on May 2). Suddenly, all that had to change,” said the principal of a school.
In Loreto House, for example, the exercise books for junior classes are in school.
“They are kept in school so that children do not have to carry them every day. Teachers are arranging the timetable with reduced written work. Or else, children would have to do their work in rough books,” said Aruna Gomes, principal, Loreto House.
The new academic session in most schools in the city started just about seven or 10 days ago and schools are still in the process of collecting data from students.
“Phone numbers of parents change and not all information is readily available with the school,” said Jessica Gomes Surana, principal, Loreto Day School Elliot Road.
“There are teachers who have just joined the school from other institutions and they are not well aware of their class groups. Even existing teachers need time to know their children and the session has just started,” said John Bagul, principal, South City International School.
Bagul said parents, too, need time to make arrangements for online classes.