HYDERABAD: Barely 32 per cent of students in the state attended physical classes on Tuesday and not many schools in the city, especially those affiliated to CBSE, ICSE and other boards, have resumed physical classes despite the government announcing opening of all educational institutions from February 1.

As per the details released by the school education department, only 17.8 lakh students from class 1 to class 10 in 38,307 schools across the state attended physical classes on Tuesday out of the total 55.11 lakh enrolled.

Though the daily attendance report released by the department mentioned that 37,590 schools out of the total 38, 307 reopened on Tuesday, private budget school members said that the number is far from reality as barely 40% of these schools reopened on Tuesday.
“Quite a few school managements have not resumed offline classes today as it is not an auspicious day. About 80% of budget schools might reopen tomorrow and the remaining, especially hostels, are planning to reopen from February 7,” said Y Shekhar Rao, president, Telangana Recognised School Management Association (TRSMA).

Students and teachers being down with Covid-related symptoms is another major reason why many have not resumed physical classes.

“About 30% of teachers and many students or their family members are down with Covid-19. So, we did not want to start offline classes immediately. We might reopen next Monday,” said S Narasimha Reddy, principal, Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur.

B Shiva Raj, state vice-president of Telangana Private Teachers Forum (TPTF), said “When we called up parents to find out whether or not they are going to send their children for offline classes, many said that their children are down with cold and other Covid-related symptoms and that they prefer online mode.” He, however, alleged that many managements are planning to run the remaining academic year in online mode to save on salaries and other expenditures.

A few schools, meanwhile, have started physical classes only for classes 9-12.