Schools come alive once again as kids back to classes

Nalgonda/Khammam/Mahbubnagar: The students and teachers heave a sigh of relief on ringing of bells of government and private educational institutions after a long gap of eight months in erstwhile Nalgonda district, on Monday.

Following the Covid-19 norms, students of Class 9 and above enthusiastically attended the classes and met their teachers and classmates with cheerful faces. Following the strict norms in place, the students with masks were allowed inside the classes after temperature screening and sanitisation of hands.

Teachers and lecturers taught the classes by maintaining physical distance in classrooms. District Education Officers of Nalgonda and Bhongir, Bikshapathi and Chaithanya Jainee respectively and in Suryapet district, AD Shailaja visited few schools on day one of opening and examined the implementation of Covid protocol.

Though the students were excited to get back to schools and colleges for offline classes, many were still apprehensive about the corona pandemic.

Nearly 45 per cent of students attended the schools in erstwhile Nalgonda district and school managements took permission from parents of students as per the direction of the government.

Srinidhi, Class X student of a private school of Nalgonda, was happy to be relieved from the pressure of attending online classes.

Sridhar Reddy, a parent, stated that he educated his daughter about the precautionary measures to be taken even in school and was happy to send to her to school once again.

In Khammam, nearly 50 per cent of students attended the schools and junior colleges in erstwhile Khammam district amid strict Covid protocol. In Khammam district, there are 280 government schools and 178 private schools and of the total of 31,754 students, 15,670 students attended the classes on Monday. In Bhadradri-Kothagudem district, 12 government junior colleges are present and of the 2,568 students, 1,000 students attended. In 35 private junior colleges, against 5,233 students, 2,145 attended the classes. Similarly, the schools saw 50 per cent attendance of students. Khammam Zilla Parishad chairman L Kamal Raju and Sathupally MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah inspected the schools in Khammam town and Sathupally respectively. They examined the facilities in schools and interacted with teachers.

In Mahbubnagar, as per the directions of the Education department, all the District Education Officers of five districts including Wanaparthy, Mahbubnagar, Narayanpet, Nagarkurnool and Gadwal have issued clear instructions to all the high school teachers to strictly abide by the Covid-19 norms while allowing students into classrooms.

"On the first day we have taken all the necessary precautions and adhered to all Covid-19 norms as stipulated by the government. The 9th and 10th class students enthusiastically attended the classes. However, we ensured the students maintained proper social distancing, sanitised the hands before entering the classes and wore masks," said Balalingaiah, a senior teacher at Zilla Parishad High School of Marikal.