A number of schools will remain open on Saturdays for in-person classes, post-summer vacation, to make up for the academic loss the students suffered because of the heat-induced weeklong closure of campuses from April 17.
At least two schools did not conduct online classes during the weeklong closure, which was ordered by the state government because of the excruciating heat spell.
Officials of one of the schools that conducted online classes said they still feel the need for additional in-person classes for the benefit of students.
South Point and Mahadevi Birla World Academy, which did not hold online classes last week, will draw up a schedule for classroom teaching on Saturdays after the summer vacation.
“We will use a few Saturdays to compensate for the loss of classes last week, especially the senior students. For the seniors, there has to be a certain number of days that are required to complete the syllabus,” said Krishna Damani, trustee of South Point school.
“We did not want to jump into online classes because parents need time to make arrangements at home. Last week, we were getting our back-up ready and would have shifted to online sessions had the heat spell continued. But we have been able to resume in-person classes this week. We will have a few Saturday classes to make up for the loss suffered last week,” said Anjana Saha, principal, Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
Many private schools had shifted to online classes during the weeklong closure of campuses to maintain continuity in learning.
The new academic session had just started and officials of a number of schools said they did not want to break the momentum of teaching-learning, explaining the reason for the shift to online sessions.
But online classes are not enough, teachers of many schools said.
“During online sessions we cannot assess the productivity of the classes. Working on Saturdays will be important, especially for classes X and XII, because teachers will have to complete their syllabus within a certain period. Pre-boards are usually held in January,” said Terence John, principal, Julien Day School Kalyani.
Usually, schools complete the syllabus for classes X and XII before the pre-board exams to give students enough time for revision.
Classes X and XII at some schools have their pre-board exams scheduled for December and January.
John said they had also noticed a drop in attendance during online classes.
The Telegraph has reported how in homes with two or more children, it becomes difficult to arrange for a device for every student.
“Teaching happens during online sessions, but we are not sure how much learning happens because of network problems and children having to be on mute mode. Interactions during online classes are limited to the bare minimum,” said a teacher at a south Kolkata school.
