Telangana: Parents say no to physical classes this year

Hyderabad: Parents, especially of private school students in the city, expressed their disagreement with the government's order to open schools, even as detailed guidelines for operations are still awaited.  

They said that they would not send young children to physical classes until there was a vaccine available for them. Some even said they would feel more comfortable in dropping a year of schooling if the government made attendance mandatory.

In an anonymous poll conducted by the Hyderabad Schools' Parents Association (HSPA), 96 percent of parents who participated said they would not send their children to school this year.

Sanjay Agarwal, advocate and parent of students in Classes 4 and 5 in the city, said, "If the government mandates attendance, I would go to the school to allow online classes for my children. Our family has decided that none of our children will take physical classes this year. We cannot play with the lives of our children."

On Twitter as well, parents demanded that vaccines for children and all teaching and non-teaching staff be made prerequisite to convince parents to opt for physical schooling. A Twitter user by the name Ravi Kiran city commented that there would be no school for their kids without a vaccine. "Incidents in the last few months have shown how ready and strong our healthcare system is," some of them tweeted.

Concerns have also been raised on the situation that arose when schools were reopened at the beginning of this year, where several students and teaching and non-teaching staff got infected with Covid-19 especially in government and residential schools.

However, the government is yet to give final guidelines for opening educational institutes in the state along with the conduct of physical and online classes for the next academic year starting from July 1.