Telangana: E-classes for govt & small private schools now hang in the balance

HYDERABAD: While students of corporate or international schools are continuing education with online classes, those from government and private budget schools will have to study on their own for now.
On Sunday, the state had extended holidays to all educational institutions, except medical colleges till January 30. Though Osmania University and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, directed colleges to conduct online classes, no such directions have been given by the school education department.
The state government has not yet released the schedule of digital classes either, while many private budget schools have not yet made arrangements to conduct online classes.
“It looks like there won’t be any digital classes for government school students until January 30 as the education department has not released any schedule. Even teachers are not being asked to come and prepare or monitor digital classes,” said M Ravinder, vice president, Telangana Progressive Teachers Federation.
The State Institute of Educational Technology (SIET), however, will be recording content for online/digital classes from January 17-27 for classes 6 to 10.
When it comes to private budget schools, the Telangana Recognised School Management Association (TRSMA) members said that hardly 5% to 10% of schools, which have been conducting classes in the hybrid mode, have resumed online classes from Monday.
“The remaining might start online classes from Thursday. Even at my school, we had a meeting and teachers have been asked to get in touch with students and instruct them to download the required app,” said Shekhar Rao, president, TRSMA.