Several schools in the city have decided not to conduct simultaneous online and offline classes because it is “complicated” and teachers will get burdened with more than just teaching or giving attention to the class.
The teachers will have to keep an eye on whether an outsider has joined the online class and keep asking those behind the screen if the blackboard is visible to them.
In-person classes on specified days will also encourage students to get into the habit of coming back to school. If the same class is being live streamed, students might opt out at the last moment, a principal said.
Don Bosco Park Circus, Modern High School for Girls, South Point High School, Mahadevi Birla World Academy, North Point Senior Secondary Boarding School in Baguiati are some schools that are not holding hybrid classes now.
Julien Day School Ganganagar that will start later has also decided not to have hybrid classes.
Don Bosco Park Circus has students of Classes IX and XI coming in on alternate days since Tuesday.
“We are conducting in-person lessons for the class coming in. For other classes, lessons are online that day. It will be difficult for teachers to monitor students online and pay attention to the group in front simultaneously,” said Father Bikash Mondal, the principal of the school.
Teachers feel that when it was only online, they did not have to juggle between two mediums.
“In an online class, there is always a danger of an outsider entering the class and trying to disrupt the session. It will be too much for the teacher to keep a tab on all of that,” said Bobby Baxter, the prin-cipal of Julien Day School Ganganagar.
Some schools feel that it will also get students into the practice of coming to school and yet not have the hassle of coming every day, for now.
“In November, we have prepared a schedule where three streams of Class XI are coming on different days. The science students will use the laboratory extensively,” said Anjana Saha, principal, Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
If live streaming of the same class is done, many students would not even make the effort to come, she said.
South Point has reserved on-campus sessions for structured revision classes and practicals while lectures are being conducted online.
“In a hybrid class, teachers will also have to keep worrying about the bandwidth and network. Her attention is bound to get impacted,” said Rita Chatterjee, director, North Point Senior Secondary Boarding School.
However, not all schools are discarding hybrid classes. “We are taking small steps to see what will work out. When more students start coming in, we will have to decide what works better,” said a head.