Fearing coronavirus, many schools, parents want academic term to start in August
Fire force personnel spray disinfectant on a street in Bengaluru on April 10, 2020. AFP
Experts, academicians and private school management representatives in the state favour the commencement of the academic year for the year 2020-21 only from August. They demanded that the state government declare that the academic year will begin only from August.
“The commencement of the academic year for 2020-21 should be only after July because even if the crisis is over in June end, schools need another one month to restart,” said D Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka.
School managements say they need at least a month’s time to arrange textbooks, uniforms and other logistics even after everything comes to normalcy.
“It would be a big challenge as we are dealing with children and their safety overrides everything else during such a situation. Even if the government lifts the lockdown, we being the stakeholders, need to think of safety before reopening of schools,” said a representative of a private school management from the city.
“I don’t think we can function up to the primary level even after July. Since these children are more vulnerable to infections and since social distancing will be difficult, we would be forced to begin the academic year after August,” says the principal of a CBSE-affiliated school.
Mansoor Ali Khan, board member, Delhi Public School, said, “In this situation, everybody has to go the extra mile for the next one year. This will affect the complete academic year and the upcoming one. I suggest respective boards to issue uniform directions about the commencement of the academic year to avoid confusion.”
The situation is expected to return to normalcy only by May 31. After May 31, the government has to conduct all the postponed examinations, including SSLC, which takes at least a month. And other board exams may get over by the end of June or first week of July.
Parents may stretch time till Sept
Meanwhile, several parents said that even if schools reopen and the government lifts restrictions, they will not send their children till August or even September.
“Safety and health of my child is more important to me. I have decided to send her to school only from September,” said a parent.
“I even don’t mind wasting an academic year to prevent the risk of sending my child to school when we are facing a global crisis like COVID-19. I am planning to request my child’s school to send the content and I will teach her at home,” said another parent.
By Sisel Soman – COO
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