PUNE: Many experts and teachers in rural areas hope that the government allows reopening of schools in Covid-19-free villages to compensate for the academic loss.
A study by the Pune District Institute of Education and Training has said that over 89% of parents and 94% of teachers believe that students have suffered learning losses due to the extended closure of schools in the state .
While online classes are happening, issues such as access to devices and cellphone network have affected its reach, especially in rural areas.
Even in urban areas like Pune, 43% of the students did not have access to online education.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has told the education department to examine the possibility of reopening schools in Covid-19 free villages at least for standards X and XII.
Hiware Bazar gram panchayat, which was opened its school offline for senior classes on June 15, but was told to shut down earlier this week, has written to Thackeray for permission to reopen.
“We’ll initially explore the possibility of reopening class X and XII classrooms in villages where there have been no new cases in the last few months, provided they commit to Covid appropriate behaviour and adopt measures for keeping the virus at bay in future as well.
The health and safety of our children remain our priority,” school education minister Varsha Gaikwad tweeted on Tuesday night.
SB Deshmukh, secretary of Nashik District Principal Association, said, “There are many schools in remote areas and tribal villages across Maharashtra.
These villages have not had any Covid-19 cases yet the schools are closed due to the blanket rule in the state.
These villages have no access to the internet, which means for most of last year, and even this year, the students could not access education.
However, the reopening of these schools will help students and villagers to a great extent.
Nashik district itself has four talukas with a tribal population.
Only reopening schools can ensure that education reaches these areas.”