Education department asks school heads in Chandigarh to call 40 students per school

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

 Chandigarh, September 22

 A day after schools received an unenthusiastic attendance due to lack of consent from parents, the UT Education Department asked the heads of government schools to call at least 40 to 45 students per day by “motivating” parents who had formerly consented to send their children for guidance.

 On Monday, only 950 students turned up at 90 government schools as parents, who had previously consented to send children, withdrew their consent. As per the survey conducted by the department, a total of 25,000 students had agreed to come to the government schools.

 A similar trend was witnessed on Tuesday as only 5 to 10 students visited each school for guidance.

 A message sent to the Principal’s WhatsApp group reads, “As today was the first day and all of us know that even after receiving consent from a good number of parents, very less number of students attended the classes today. Now an effort and cooperation from you to sensitise and motivate parents to send their wards as per the staggered time table prepared by schools are required. Also, you can manage to call more number of sections/classes so that at least 40 to 45 students are present per day, at least those who all have earlier consented to attend must be motivated to come as per their schedule.”

 Earlier, the department had communicated to school heads to specifically ensure that online or distance learning continued and that students from classes IX to XII were permitted to visit the school  on voluntary basis for taking guidance from teachers.

 A government school teacher said, “We were informed not to call students ourselves yesterday by the inspection team. Now, we have been asked to convince parents to send their children. This is against the principle of seeking consent.”

 District Education Officer, Alka Mehta said “we have asked schools to motivate parents who had given consent previously”.