City schools plan staggered opening: Classes 5-7, then 1-4

City schools plan to bring only secondary students to offline classes before opening the gates for their primary counterparts.

- Sandhya.Nair

Mumbai:

The state on Thursday had approved the proposal to reopen all classes from 1 to 7 from December 1. Classes 8 to 12 have been operating in the hybrid mode since October and attendance has begun picking up post Diwali. The state government resolution on reopening all classes is awaited. The BMC will thereafter take a call on reopening primary and secondary classes.

Schools are gearing to accommodate classes 5 to 7 along with classes 8 to 10. Most schools will operate in two batches of three to four hours each. “Our higher secondary students come in at 7am and leave at 10.30 am. We will bring Class 5-7 students at 10.45am. A call on primary students will be taken after the senior students settle down in their classrooms,” said the principal of a Chembur school.

With one student per seat, each class has been divided in three to four classrooms in several schools. “Initially we plan to have fewer Class 5 to 7 students in school as most classrooms are taken over by standards 8 to 10,” said the principal of a Goregaon school.

The failure of hybrid learning for those online is bringing more students to offline classes. “Accommodating students by adhering to Covid-19 protocols is now becoming a challenge,” a principal said.