At least two city schools that had started offline classes in November will switch back to online classes in January. Several othe schools are now thinking of deferring their decision to call back students to campus.
Loreto Convent Entally and Indus Valley World School have decided to hold online classes in January.
La Martiniere for Girls and St Xavier’s Collegiate School that were planning offline lessons for classes IX and XI in January, have decided to keep it on hold for now.
Schools like Mahadevi Birla World Academy, St Augustine’s Day School in Shyamnagar and Barrackpore, Julien Day School Ganganagar are rethinking whether to call students to campus in January or not. They are waiting for instructions from the state government.
With government allowing the vaccination of children above 15 years, several heads of schools said that it might be prudent to get them vaccinated before they are back on campus.
“...in view of the sudden surge in cases of Covid 19 infection in the city as reported in the press, we have decided to continue with only Online Classes with effect from 4th January 2022 until further notice,” said the notice from Amita Prasad, director, Indus Valley World School, to parents on Thursday morning.
“A schedule was shared with students with classes on alternate days. But now the plan has to be put on hold,” Prasad told The Telegraph.
“We won’t call them back at least in January,” said Jessica Gomes, principal of Loreto Convent Entally.
At La Martiniere for Girls authorities are keeping a close watch on the situation. “We were planning in-person classes for IX and XI but now we have decided to continue with online classes,” said Rupkatha Sarkar, principal, La Martiniere for Girls.
Several schools are worried about the board practical exams for Class XII (ISC) which has to be conducted on campus. The marks have to be submitted by January 31. “We are concerned about the practicals. If it so turns that the exams cannot be conducted in-person, students will go to college, unprepared,” said Seema Sapru, principal. The Heritage School.