Bengaluru: New academic session of schools begins with virtual classes

As the month of June marks its arrival, schools and colleges across the country are forced to remain shut due to the high risk posed by coronavirus pandemic. Most of the school managements have thereby decided to begin 'online classes' for the students from June 1.

New ways of teaching 

Several schools in Bengaluru have informed the students and parents to prepare themselves for the new method of teaching. Teachers and school management have opened special online portals and applications to ensure hassle-free teaching.

The classes are scheduled according to the usual subject hours where each session will last for 40 minutes.

In its initial rounds, the online classes are scheduled for selected classes, preferably the upper grades. If this proves successful, the management will decide on including the primary sections too.

Conducted over Zoom and Google Meet, the teachers are asked to take attendance for their sessions. Meanwhile, for smaller classes, most of the schools have provided the option of recording their classes so that the children can save and watch it accordingly.

As the Centre has moved to 'unlock' all public services by June 8, it has hinted on reopening the academic institutions by July.

Parents against reopening schools 

Meanwhile, the Parents Association in the city has stated that they will not send their children to schools until the government declares zero Covid positive cases in the country. They called the decision to open the schools in July 'insane.'

In their petition on Change.org, the Association claimed that "It's like playing with fire when we ought to douse it with full force. The parents should fight against this stupidity with tooth n nail, not a single child to be sent to the schools for their own safety (sic)."

The Association whereas agreed on the idea of conducting classes through online platforms. "If the schools claim they are doing a good job via virtual learning, why not continue it for the rest of the academic year?"

Meanwhile, poor network connectivity and lack of availability of laptops pose a challenge for most of the parents where two or more kids have to engage in online classes at the same time.