Schools in Gurugram, both private and government, opened to a lukewarm response from the students on Monday. Most of the prominent schools — Heritage Xperiential Learning School, Scottish High International School, Ajanta Public School and Delhi Public School (Sushant Lok) — either remained shut or recorded nil turnout.
The poor turnout was in sharp contrast to a survey by the Haryana Education Department claiming that 84% parents for government schools and 73% for private schools were willing to send their wards to schools for taking guidance from their teachers.
Deputy District Education Officer Kalpana Singh said the response was very “poor” and hardly 2-3% students had turned up. She, however, said the exact statistics on the turnout were being compiled. “I visited the boys and girls schools in Badshahpur. Hardly 15-20 students had turned up in each of the two schools. The teachers spoke to the students to allay their fears on infection and asked them to bring along their friends as well,” said Ms. Singh.
She added the priority of the education department was to bring back those students to schools who did not have access to smartphones or were not active on online classes. “Let us see how the situation unfolds over the next one week. We will try to speak to the parents if the response remains poor,” said Ms. Singh.
A survey conducted by Heritage Xperiential Learning School had only 8% of parents expressing their desire to send their wards to school. Most of the parents stated that they were very happy with the online classes being offered. Ajanta Public School’s Public Relations Officer, Leena, said the parents were not willing to send their kids to schools in the present condition.
Principal of Ryan International School, Sohna Road, Peeya Sharma said the response from the parents was not encouraging and the school would open only on Wednesdays and Saturdays for two hours for the students to come and clear their doubts.
Scottish High International School Director Sudha Goyal said the school was open, but no one turned up. DPS (Sushant Lok) admission team member Megha Gupta said the school was holding online exams for the first semester and the students were not allowed come to the school.
