Hold classes in 1 shift of 5 hours: Gautam Budh Nagar DIOS

NOIDA: By next week, all schools affiliated to the UP Board, CBSE and ICSE in Noida and Ghaziabad will have to run classes for grades 9-12 on the campus in one shift of five hours instead of two earlier.
The district inspector of schools (DIOS) in Gautam Budh Nagar notified all schools on Tuesday that they will have to combine the two shifts of three hours, currently being held for classes 9-12, as one class of five hours, following an order by the state education department.Ghaziabad will issue the letter to its schools by Wednesday, the district education officials said.
“We received the government order on Monday and I circulated it to all schools on Tuesday. So, we hope the schools will implement the same according to their convenience in the coming days,” Neeraj Kumar Pandey, DIOS, Gautam Budh Nagar, told TOI. His counterpart in Ghaziabad, Ravi Dutt added, “We have received the order and will circulate it soon. We also hope schools will now start converging the classes as per the order.”
While private schools are happy with the government’s move, parents have, however, expressed concern over social distancing norms on the campuses as the schools are directed to normalise upper class schedules.
Anil Agarwal, president of the Lucknow-based Unaided Private Schools Association (UPSA), said, “We had appealed to the government that the classes be merged because three hours were not enough to help teach anything to children facing board examinations. Now if schools and children maintain individual safety, it is best that there be one single class of five hours.”
However, the parents' body, All School Parents Association (ASPA), has raised a concern about the health and safety of children. “The government should have waited for the vaccination process before normalising the schedule. Operating in two different shifts was a viable solution, now the schools have to be extra vigilant to see children are maintaining safety protocols,” said Shivani Jain, president of ASPA.
However, Agarwal, who represents all private schools in the state, has also proposed to the government that the junior classes of the schools should also be regularised now. “Students have gone through a year of massive academic loss and except for a small percentage of students who have tried to assimilate information properly from the online classes, most have taken the same casually and it will reflect in their studies.”