Schools Re-Open - Day 1: Empty classrooms greet teachers

Hyderabad: The first day of reopening of schools after the extended Sankranti holidays saw a low turnout of students due to fear of rising Covid infections. Only 25 per cent of students attended the classes at government schools on Tuesday.

Though most of the government schools followed strict Covid guidelines and ensured that students followed physical distancing, even inside the classrooms, a few government schools were worried about cleanliness due to lack of scavengers. At a few places, the teachers had to hire workers to clean the school premises.

"We registered very low attendance as today being the first day after vacation. As soon as the State government announced reopening of schools, we have informed all parents to send their kids. However, the turnout is low due to corona infection fear. We are making sure that our students maintain social distancing and wear masks," said Laxmi, a teacher at a government school in West Marredpally.

"As the physical classes resumed after 24 days, only a few students attended on Tuesday. Now there is no problem in maintaining Covid norms as only a few attended the school today, but we are concerned about following the guidelines when the number of students attending the school increase in the coming up days. We request the government to deploy scavengers in government schools so that school premises can be cleaned regularly," said Jeevan Prakash, headmaster of Government High School, Rasoolpura.

"Out of 350 students, only 60 students attended the classes on the first day. We have instructed our teachers to see that the students don't remove their masks. But like many government schools, our school too is in need of scavengers to clean the washrooms. As of now, we have hired workers to clean the premises," said a staff of Government High School, YMCA, Secunderabad.