Schools in Vizag witness low attendance on the first day back

As the schools reopened in Vizag on Monday, after year-long online classes, many of the schools received low attendance on the first day back. Teachers opine that it could be due to the unfavorable weather conditions in Vizag.

In spite of the drizzles, some students carried umbrellas, wore masks, sanitised at the school entrance, and took the regular temperature check before entering their respective classrooms. Teachers played a key role in ensuring a safe reopening of schools. They conducted awareness classes on the health protocols to be followed, and also explained the decorum to be maintained during the classes to the students before they visited the schools. In order to keep teacher absenteeism at bay, a majority of the teachers in government schools have been vaccinated. All the private schools have been instructed to see to it that their teachers are vaccinated with both doses in the next few weeks.

The low attendance at schools in Vizag can also be attributed to the fact that it was pre-decided to have only 20 students per section as per the circular from the Andhra Pradesh Education Department. Accordingly, only schools located in areas with less than a 10 percent positivity rate, were allowed to reopen. In order to ensure this, the respective village or ward secretariats were asked to take the responsibility to check the positivity rate on a weekly basis. Those students who showed any symptoms of fever, headache or cold were asked to return home.

To ensure that all the health protocols were strictly being adhered to, senior officials visited certain schools on Monday. Mayor of Visakhapatnam, Golagani Venkata Kumari, visited the MGM High School at Daba Gardens. Andhra Pradesh State Tourism Minister, Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao, visited Zilla Parishad High School, Chandrampalem.