Many schools on Thursday continued to hold live online classes even though the government had on June 10 scrapped them for pre-primary and lower primary students.
School managements said they had not received the order from the Department of Primary and Secondary Education.
“We will not cancel classes till we receive the order in writing,” said the principal of a private school in Bengaluru.
Other schools said that they will continue classes till this week as their teachers had already prepared their lessons.
The government’s decision to stop all forms of internet learning modules, including pre-recorded videos for students up to class V, has not gone down well with a section of parents. An online petition against the decision had received 13,000 signatures since Wednesday.
Parents petitioned Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar and officials for online classes.
“Schools are putting great effort to continue giving education to our children even during the pandemic,” the petition stated. The signatories said that they would prefer to see their children use the time – spent on their gadgets and iPads – in a productive manner.
However, an equal number of parents are pulling up their schools for continuing online classes. A father of a class I student said, “I am appalled that even after the minister announcing the ban on Wednesday, the school is continuing with classes.”
The parent of a child enrolled in a school in south Bengaluru said, “My child is in class III. The school has classes in four subjects per day. If the school continues to conduct classes next week, I will register a complaint against the management.”
Officials on Thursday received complaints from parents about schools violating the ban.
K.G. Jagadeesha, Commissioner for Public Instruction, said that the department would submit a draft order to the government on Friday. “The government needs to approve the order,” he said.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar had written to the Commissioner for Public Instruction urging him to issue the order.
