Flu concern: Online still wins over offline

BHUBANESWAR: With cases of viral fever, cold and cough rising in the city, many parents have stopped sending their children to schools for offline classes of 8 to 12. And this has left teachers overburdened as they have to conduct classes both online and offline due to thin attendance in physical classrooms.
“My daughter told me that three students of her class have cough and cold. Some others stopped attending offline classes after they got viral fever. Though they may not have contracted Covid, I don’t feel it is safe to send her to school. I have asked my daughter to attend online classes,” said Supriti Pani, mother of a class 9 student of a city school. Teachers said around 20%-30% students are attending offline lessons in classes 10, 11 and 12, while around 50% students in junior classes are opting for offline classes in the city private schools. In government-run schools, the percentage of attendance is slightly better.
“Besides Covid-19 fear, there are several other factors for which students are not coming to school. They prefer to attend online classes from the comfort of their home. Also, the quality of online teaching has improved. The syllabus has been revised and students will face only multiple-choice questions in exams,” said Debapriya Sahu, a teacher in a private school. “In classrooms with smart class facilities, we are asking students to join from home, but in other cases, we have to take extra class for online students, which is tiring. Most teachers will prefer offline classes as students lack attention during online ones. In offline classes, they can directly interact with students,” said Madhusmita Dash, another teacher.
Offline classes from classes 8 to 12 have resumed across Odisha. The government has announced to reopen offline classes for students of classes 6 and 7 on November 15.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday dedicated 142 transformed schools in five districts under the 5T school transformation scheme. Among the transformed schools are 67 from Sundargarh, 30 from Cuttack, 23 from Balasore, 22 from Nabarangpur and 10 from Kandhamal.
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