Setting aside the instructions of the District Education Department to reopen schools on June 15, many private school managements reopened their schools on Friday across the Krishna district.
Areas like Mogalrajpuram, Satyanarayanapuram, Ayyappa Nagar, BRTS Road, Tarapeta, Maruthinagar, which are replete with schools were beehive with activity. The streets teemed with children heading to their respective schools. Quite a few school buses picked up the children from different areas and usual traffic snarls were witnessed in a few areas. Interestingly, District Educational Officer K. Nageswara Rao said the department did not receive any complaints or come across any schools reopening on Friday.
Meanwhile, quite a few parents in the city are forced to visit mobile outlets to purchase tabs for their wards.
Thanks to the overzealous ambitions of a few private school managements in the city, parents of even fourth and fifth standard students are asked to purchase tabs for their wards.
A few managements have gone a step further and are insisting parents to purchase the tabs in their schools and not in the conventional mobile outlets. “School management asked to buy a tab for my daughter last year when she was studying fourth standard and I resisted. But this year there is no exception and I have to spend Rs. 4,500 for the gadget,” says a private employee.In addition to this, students are being categorised on the basis of tabs. Students with tabs are being accommodated in a particular section and those who opt for textbooks into another. School managements defend the move saying the objective was to help the students in doing away with carrying bags loaded with many books. This is for the benefit of students and not a revenue generation plan, explains a teacher on condition of anonymity. But psychiatrists inform that the move is a double-edged sword.
City-based psychiatrist Vishal Indla says many school managements in metro cities are insisting on students carrying tabs. It is good that students will not have to carry heavy bags to schools but using tabs regularly will also have adverse affects, he informs.
Continuous use of tabs at a young age among children in classrooms will affect their handwriting besides their concentration levels. For instance in conventional teaching practice, when a science teacher is conducting a class, students will have to use only science textbooks. But while using tabs, students can shift the topics and subjects at a click of a button. Managements and parents have to carefully balance the use of tabs or it can lead to many problems, he explains.