BHUBANESWAR: The school and mass education department on Wednesday asked private schools in the city to adhere to the guidelines issued for reopening of schools and provide options of online, offline and hybrid modes for classes as well examinations. Some schools have issued notices for conducting examinations only offline.

“Schools cannot violate the guidelines issued by the department and the special relief commissioner. If any school will be found violating the guidelines, strict action will be taken against them,” said Bishnupada Sethi, schools and mass education secretary.

The directorate of secondary education on Wednesday issued a show cause notice to DAV Public School, Chandrasekharpur for violating the guidelines and giving notice to students and parents regarding conduct of periodic assessment from February 12 in offline mode. “Due to suspension of offline classes for a longtime, many of the students might have faced socio-emotional issues and might also be lacking the preparedness to face the offline examination immediately after reopening of school. Conducting the examination in offline mode may be a cause of stress for students. This action on your part violates the instruction contained in the government orders,” said the show cause notice.

The notice also mentioned that, as per the government order it is clearly mentioned that, students will have the option to take examinations though offline or online or hybrid mode.

However, when contacted by school authorities they said, it was a printing mistake on the notice, but the online notice issued to the parents has both the options. “We have revised the notice and already sent it to parents,” informed school authorities.

The directorate of elementary education also issued a notice to Loyola School on Wednesday for following the guidelines of government on school reopening after parents opposed for not having both online and offline examination modes.

City schools said more than 70 % students from class I to IX are opting for online mode of examinations. Ahead of the final examination some schools in the city have begun issuing notices to parents for their consent for offline exams. If parents opted for online exams, they are expected to give a reason for it.

“We took the opinion of parents for online, offline or hybrid examinations. We are surprised to see that a large number of students and parents are opting for online mode of examination. Maybe in the last two years they have become comfortable attending classes and appearing for exams in online mode at home. Offline classes also have thin attendance compared to government schools,” said Nilakantha Panigrahy, principal of SAI International School.

Parents are also worried about sending kids to school until all kids get vaccinated. Though daily covid cases have dropped significantly and child Covid patients recovered quickly, parents fear that younger kids may not follow the safety rules in the classroom. “This is why most kids opted for online exams. They need some time for children to acclimatise with offline or physical classes as they return to school after a gap of two years,” Sumitra Biswas, a parent of Loyola School.