Students in many schools have allegedly forgotten the classroom decorum they have practised for years and will have to be given time to return to a more formal school life, said teachers and mental health professionals.
In at least two schools, students in a classroom did not stand up when the principal walked in, something unheard of before the pandemic.
The 20 months of school from home and the physical absence of teachers and the usual school decorum have created these “gaps” and “made them casual”.
Students did not have to stand up to wish their teacher in an online class and could also avoid wishing the teacher by keeping the device on mute.
In winter, there have been instances of students attending classes from under the quilt as well.
In one school, a couple of Class XII students came to take the admit cards and submit projects in casual clothes on Thursday.
When asked about it, they said they thought it was not essential because they were coming to school only for a few hours.
The classroom behaviour will have to be taught to them from the beginning, said the heads of two schools where in-person classes resumed from Tuesday.
“The mode has to shift from home to school and that will happen slowly,” said John Stephen, acting principal, La Martiniere for Boys.
The re-learning of school protocol will happen as they get into the habit of going to school all over again, said teachers.
Teachers interacting with them in-person in the last couple of days felt that students were trying to recognise their teachers from behind their masks.
“Some of them have moved from middle to senior school and are in a new building with a new set of teachers. They have interacted with them only online and now to see them behind masks in a new environment, they would need time to get used to it all,” said Anjana Saha, the principal of Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
Psychiatrists said 20 months is a long time in the life of a 14-15-year-old, compared with that of a 40-year-old. The teenagers were used to things in a certain way.
“It will take some weeks for children to get back into the rhythm of school life and how to navigate it. Adults will have to acknowledge the fact that there would be things which would have to be re-wired in the brain,” said psychiatrist Jai Ranjan Ram.
Schools are being more considerate than they would have earlier been because teachers understand the “slips in behaviour” are a fallout of the pandemic.
On any other occasion, the students would have been sent back and asked to return in uniform to collect their admit cards.
“During parent-teacher meetings, we had asked parents to see wherever possible that students attend classes from a fixed space. But no matter how much we say or parents try, some casual habits have got entrenched in the past 20 months.
The clock cannot be turned back overnight. We cannot expect things to be just like we had left them in March 2020,” said Amita Prasad, director, Indus Valley World School.
Principals said they will have to reinforce school discipline gradually.
“We will use the public address system during the assembly. In class, teachers will slowly remind them of what is required. But for that we would also wait for more students to turn up,” said Stephen.
