City schools claim they are unable to follow the exact time schedule for online classes for respective standards laid out by the state government. School principals and teachers claim they might have to tweak the duration of online classes, increase the time of sessions and include parents' interaction depending on case by case basis.
On Wednesday, the state issued a government resolution (GR) directing schools to conduct one online session of 30 minutes for pre-primary, two sessions of 30 minutes each for Standard 1 to 2, two sessions of 45 minutes each for Standard 3 to 8 and a maximum of four sessions of 45 minutes each for Standard 9 to 12 per day from Monday to Friday.
In response to this, authorities of city schools claim they cannot follow the exact time schedule as a lot of extra time is spent in managing students, drawing their attention, giving homework and explaining concepts unlike in physical classes. The principal of a Malad (west) school on request of anonymity said, "We are conducting online classes every day only for Standard 8 to 10 with three sessions of 35 minutes each per standard. We are unable to conduct online classes for other standards because students do not have smartphones or computers and lack internet accessibility because they are mostly from weak financial backgrounds."
The time duration and pattern of online classes directed by the state cannot be implemented in all schools for all students, said Vidhyuti Mishra, a teacher of a Bandra east school. Mishra said, "The state wants us to conduct two sessions of 30 mins and 45 mins each for Standard 1 to 2 and 3 to 8 respectively. But out of this time, almost 15 mins are spent in drawing the attention of the children, establishing a good communication network and stabilising technical glitches. Also, we might need more time to explain certain concepts and provide homework to children."
In addition, out of two sessions of 30 mins each for Standard 1 to 2, the state has directed schools to conduct 15 mins of activity based learning and 15 mins of guidance and interaction with parents. Fr Francis Swamy, joint secretary of the Archdiocese Board of Education (ABE) which manages a chain of 150 schools in Mumbai, said, "We are conducting online classes for around two hours for primary section but with a lot of 10 and 20 minute breaks between sessions. We are making sure that children get up from their seats and do not spend all the time in front of a screen."
This GR, which has come following the Pragyata guidelines issued by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) on July 14, has also granted permission to schools to conduct online classes for below Class 2. Earlier, the Maharashtra government had released a circular on June 15 with SOP guidelines stating, "There will be no online lectures for students from pre-primary to Standard 2."
