Bhubaneswar: Parents and teachers in the state have different views regarding the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) guidelines for online classes.
According to the guidelines, the online classes for pre-primary students should not be for more than 30 minutes. For classes I to VIII, two online sessions of up to 45 minutes each while for classes IX to XII, four sessions of 30-45 minutes duration have been recommended.
Priyanka Singh Deo, a parent, said, “I am totally with the Ministry of HRD in their decision. I agree that there should not be such lengthy classes for kids because overall health comes before anything else. It is already a challenging situation for all of us and having such non-stop classes puts pressure on kids where kids are not acquainted to sit in front of screen for so long.”
Basudev Bhatt a parent and chairman of Odisha parents association said, “Regarding the guidelines, we disagree with the inclusion of pre nursery students and also kids from Class I to VIII. They can learn at present under the parents’ guidance during this pandemic. We demand only Class IX to XII students get this online classes opportunity adhering to all COVID-19 guidelines.”
BN Patnaik a teacher and president of Confederation of Private Schools said that this decision will be very useful and good for all as both the students and teachers have to work for a very limited duration.
“We have started recording the online classes which we are sending through different mediums to the students which they can go through at their preferred time,” said Patnaik.
“We have not stopped teaching in any way during this pandemic and teachers are putting in extra effort to reach out to the students during online classes,” he added.
PNN