The gathering outside gates, mostly of mothers, chaotic school-time traffic and the ‘hum’ of students are back in schools.
The familiar sights and sounds in and around schools, missing over the past two years as campuses were shut because of Covid, have returned.
Here are some of the changes:
Crowd at the gate: A section of parents waits a couple of hours outside school gates to pick up their children. Many schools have introduced truncated timings, especially for junior students, to ease the process of getting used to the school routine.
“The nursery children are coming for two hours and so we see parents waiting at the gate. It gives us a feeling that normality is returning,” said Jessica Gomes Surana, principal of Loreto Convent Entally.
In some schools, the crowd swells shortly before classes end for the day.
Not so quiet: The noise is back with the honking of cars.
“Last two years were unusually quiet and there was no noise pollution. In fact, at times honking can disturb classes,” said Suvina Shunglu, principal of Sri Sri Academy.
Traffic trouble: Traffic is building up around schools though campuses are being reopened in phases for in-person classes. The snarls on the roads leading to the schools are delaying the journey to the gate to drop or pick up a child.
It gets worse during dispersal, when it takes 10 minutes to cross a 50m stretch.
It also means frayed tempers as parents are unable to find parking spots.
“Parents have already started complaining because there are not enough parking spots available,” said Amita Prasad, director of Indus Valley World School.
In most schools, all students are not being called simultaneously to attend in-person classes, but that has not helped reduce the number of vehicles.
“Parents are preferring to pick up and drop their children rather than letting them travel in pool cars. As a result there are too many cars in front of schools,” said the head of a city school.
Parents wait outside South Point to take their children home.
An official of South Point said the traffic congestion during school hours was still manageable but the problem might be aggravated in April, when the new session starts.
Lost and found: The lost-and-found cupboards in many schools hardly have any space left and the teachers on duty have their hands full.
“These are familiar things on a campus. Already, the teacher in charge has found articles and is putting them inside the cupboard,” said Devi Kar, director of Modern High School for Girls.
Campus hum: The school is no longer a silent zone as it used to be for two years since March 2020. The sound of the ball in the basketball court, the chatter in the corridor and the scream of karate kids — the familiar hum is back.
“It’s a delight to watch children rush out to the playground during break,” said Anjana Saha, principal of Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
Birthday girls and boys: While others need permission to enter the principal’s office, the birthday students get a privilege.
“The birthday girls are back and some of them even said they had come to meet me just before the school shut down two years back,” said Kar.