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Following the announcement by the Rajasthan government that schools will reopen for grades IX-XII on September 12, private and government schools in the state have begun planning how to resume classes following the second Covid-19 wave. The government has authorised schools to reopen with a 50% capacity and has required that all teaching and non-teaching staff have received at least the first dosage of immunisation.

“We are ready. We will be able to accommodate children into the school as per Covid protocols,” said Manisha Tyagi who is the principal of Sawai Mansingh School (SMS). While the administration announced the reopening of schools, it also stated that online classes will continue. The Home Department's Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) specified that before allowing any student to attend offline lessons, the institutions must obtain written consent from the parents.

“The first process is taking parental consent. We have sent out e-mails asking parents to give their written consent for children to attend offline classes,” said Archana Mankotia who is the principal of Maharani Gayatri Devi (MGD) Girls School. Mankotia noted that she does not anticipate all of the students to attend, but she does expect at least 50 to 60 percent. “We have enough rooms and we will have protocols like checking the temperature and sanitisation in place at the entrance gate,” Mankotia added.

According to the government, vehicles used by students for commuting would be allowed to seat staff and students in proportion to their capacity. Maheswari Public School (MPS) Jawahar Nagar principal Ashok Vaid stated that all transit vehicles would be sanitised and pupils would be screened, and that suitable seating arrangements would be in place for the students.

The government has not published any guidelines for schools that include hostels. MGD is one of these schools, and it has plans to call hostlers as well.“We are taking consent from boarders as well. We wouldn’t let boarders intermingle with day scholars and they will be attending classes from the hostel itself, even if teachers physically go and teach them,” Mankotia said. While private schools were able to continue online lectures despite some technological difficulties, government schools relied heavily on WhatsApp for much of their instruction. “It was through charity and some funds we had raised that we were able to get used smartphones for children. We gave them smartphones so it would be easy to work with the school shut,” said Dr Jayashree Bhargava, principal, Government Girls Senior Secondary School,  Gangori Bazaar.

SMS Business Studies teacher Chitra Kala stated the school was getting ready to restart. “We would place Smart TV panels and side-by-side the cameras would be set up for those attending the classes online,” Kala said of combining online and offline classes.

MGD and MPS, as well as SMS, discussed live streaming classes for children at home, while teachers attend physical classrooms and design a strategy for hybrid (online and offline) classes.

Appreciating the decision, Nikhil Jose, a member of the Rajasthan Private Schools Teachers Association and a math teacher at St. Xaviers in Jaipur, stated,  “Parents have to pay the fees anyway and virtual classes can never be as good as physical classes.”

Jose added, “Anyone who has taken admission in the first standard in the last two years, doesn’t even know what school is. Phase-wise opening of school should definitely take place”.

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