Parents heave a sigh of relief after Telangana High Court order

Hyderabad: Parents heaved a sigh of relief with the Telangana High Court orderiing that no child should be compelled to attend classes physically from September 1. Online classes will continue, and parents can decide whether they want to opt for physical classes.

Based on the High Court order, the education department issued an advisory that no child shall be compelled by any school management to physically attend class if the parent is not inclined to allow it. It is for the school management to have either offline or online classes.

All schools, government and private, are opening on September 1 and teachers would take classes from the classrooms. There will be offline and online classes.

Some private schools are asking parents of students from Classes 9 to 12 to send their children to schools while others have asked parents of students from Class 1 to Class 12 to opt for offline classes.

Some schools are providing transport for those who want to reach the schools while other private schools have asked students to arrange for their own transport for 10 days.

Sanya Kareem, vice-chairperson of Elate International School, said, "In our survey, parents generally said they would like to wait till their children got vaccinated. They are worried about the third wave. They wanted an assurance that schools will follow Covid safety protocols and sanitization measures strictly. With these inputs and the court order, we will be going for the hybrid mode of both offline and online classes."

Private schools called their teachers and administration staff on Tuesday to work out the ways and means for following safety protocols for students. Some schools have also released videos to parents on what measures are being taken. These attempts are being made to instill confidence, as safety is a major concern.

Telangana Parents Association for Child Rights and Safety president Asif Hussain Sohail said, "We got 5,000 responses in our survey and large numbers of parents stated that children must be sent to school only after vaccination. Safety of child is important. Parents want to continue with online classes and do not want to take any risks."

With the option now available of both offline and online education, educational institutions state that it will help them work out measures.