In show of defiance, schools association firm on reopening before January end

Nagpur: A pan-Maharashtra association of schools has decided to reopen from either January 17 or 27, in defiance of government guidelines, to highlight their concerns over learning through virtual mode. Maharashtra English Schools Trustees Association (Mesta) has asked all its members to prepare for this ‘show of strength’.
Sanjay Tayde-Patil, president of Mesta said, “The government takes decision supposedly based on suggestions of a task force.We would like to believe that this task force either consists of experts from field of education or seeks suggestions from them before deciding on guidelines for schools. Now, well known academics from Maharashtra are in favour of reopening, yet schools have been shut down.”
Mesta’s stance has been that online education works on an elitist bias. “Kids from poor socio-economic background have been the worst hit because they either cannot afford smartphones, or even if someone donates it, cannot afford to recharge it regularly,” said Tayde-Patil.
Other academics too have supported such a move citing the ‘learning inequality’. Khemraj Konde, Vidarbha region chief of Maharashtra Rajya Rashtravadi Shikshak Sanghatna, said, “Even going beyond the learning inequality, there is no logic of keeping schools closed. Students not coming to school does not mean that all of them are sitting at home. Kids are travelling with their parents, attending marriages, restaurants, resorts etc. When everything is open then what is the logic of shutting down schools.” Konde said in Vidarbha he is coordinating with schools to reopen from January 27.
A zilla parishad school teacher from Gadchiroli said their students were the biggest ‘victims’ of school closure. “There is no other word to describe this. Our students are indeed victims, because someone sitting in an AC cabin in Mumbai has decided what will be best for a student living over a 1,000 kilometres away in remote Gadchiroli,” said the teacher, who did not wish to be identified as he is a government employee. “If our students do not come to school, they won’t learn. It’s as simple as that. The ministers and their children study in fancy schools in Mumbai, maybe even abroad, so such decisions don’t matter at all,” said the teacher.
So while Mesta and its members are taking the aggressive stance of reopening schools, others have decided to take the middle path. Sachin Kalbande, president of RTE Foundation, said, “We have given a memorandum to authorities asking them to reconsider their school closure orders. All we are doing is denying education to those from poor socio-economic conditions.”