Govt, private institutes witness 50% to 80% attendance

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 26

As schools reopened on Monday after a gap of around four months, the government institutes recorded nearly 50 per cent attendance of children in the district. Some of private schools, which opened today, witnessed a far better response with students of board classes showing upto 80 per cent attendance. In the government schools, students were accompanied by their parents as a parent-teacher meet had been fixed up for today and tomorrow.

District Education Officer Harinder Pal Singh said, “Today, parents were shown the recent progress report of children, while they were also asked to fill a consent form for sending their wards to school. While some government schools also took a couple of classes, others allowed students to go back with their parents. Overall, it was nearly 50 per cent attendance today”.

At Government Senior Secondary School, Nehru Garden, which has the highest number of strength, more than 400 students had turned up with their parents today.

While Class XII students came today, those studying in Class XI have been called tomorrow, to ensure social distancing.

Most private schools saw 80 per cent attendance. At Sanskriti KMV School, a total of 468 students of Classes X and XII had been called in, of whom about 372 turned up. The classes were divided into groups to ensure that there were not more than 24 students in one room. Tomorrow, Class XI students have been called to attend regular classes.

Principal Rachna Monga said, “We sanitised the entire campus, ensured proper seating and followed SOPs. We will have offline classes twice a week. For remaining four days, we will have online classes only. Our sessions will be focused on concept application, work assessment, troubleshooting and most importantly moral counselling.” She also acknowledged the positive support of parents. A special prayer meet was also held. On the auspicious day when the campus again started to buzz with activity, Triveni –neem, peepal and banyan tree spiritually significant for growth, purity and virtuous deeds was planted by students.

Chander Mohan, president, Arya Shikha Mandal, extended his good wishes with high hopes to the principal, staff and students on resumption of offline classes.

Likewise at MGN Public School, Urban Estate-Phase 2, more than 50 per cent students of board classes turned up today. Since the school has a big number of students in commerce stream, they were split up to ensure that there were not more than 28 students in each room.

Principal Jatinder Singh said, “All desks were placed at a safe distance. We had hybrid teaching as students who did not turn up today could get live relay from classes at their homes.”

Regarding provisions made at the campus, he said, “No child was allowed to remove mask on the campus. Students attended classes for nearly four hours. We are also providing free bus service to them for 10 days, including to those who have never availed the service. Washrooms are being regularly sanitised throughout the day. I hope that when students and their parents will share today’s experience with remaining half of the students who did not turn up, they too will surely feel convinced with our arrangements.”

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