Staff REPORTER
ITANAGAR, Jan 28: The Private Schools and Children Welfare Association (PS&CWA), Arunachal Pradesh unit today urged the State government to allow re-open the schools for offline classes from February 1 next.
With the schools (both Govt and private) already shut from January 12 to 31 as ordered by the Govt due to sudden spurt in Covid-19 positive cases, the Association president Yowa Bullet, at a press conference here claimed that the schools were yet to complete the syllabus whilst the Education Dept has already declared that the Board exams for classes V & VIII will commence from Feb 17. He appealed to the State Govt to allow them resume the offline classes and help them cover syllabus ahead of the exams.
While fervently appealing that permission be given to reopen the schools like that of Mumbai, Maharashtra and neighbouring Assam, where offline classes are going on in spite of ‘high positivity rate as compared to Arunachal Pradesh’, Yowa said, “We assure the Govt that classes will be conducted shift-wise that too with consent from parents”.
While the State Govt has directed us to complete 100 percent syllabus of classes V and VIII ahead of the exam, he said, private schools cannot complete the syllabus through online classes and appealed to the Govt to postpone the examination to March next.
Pointing out the ‘drawbacks’ of online classes as well as ‘poor’ network services, he said, “In the name of online classes we are spoiling education of our children and due to poor network we are not able to conduct the same even in the capital region, not to talk about the far-flung areas. And more so, it is not effective for the small kids.”
Expressing concern over ‘mushrooming’ of private schools in the state, the PS&CWA spokesperson Tarh Hari claimed that around 80 percent of private schools are being run illegally flouting the Govt rules and norms set for running of private schools. He urged upon the Govt to close down such illegally run unrecognized schools.
He also claimed that few of the private schools in the capital region are running in the same building, where paan gumtis are selling tobacco items giving exposure to the school children. “This is how we are ruining our children, our future,” he said.
“There are lots of rules and regulations for running schools but the same are not being implemented on ground, nobody bothers and there is no checking on the same,” he said and requested the Education department to check and take strict action against those schools to protect our future generations.