Parents not keen, state govt tells Centre

SHILLONG: The state government has already intimated the Centre that majority of the parents in the state are not in favour of reopening of schools in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Education department recently submitted its views to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) on reopening of educational institutions.
“We had told the MHRD that the majority of the parents feel that reopening of the schools at the moment is not safe,” Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said on Saturday.
According to him, the parents are also curious to know what will be the protocols and how the syllabi will be worked out once the schools reopen.
“We hope the Centre will give due consideration to the submission made by the state government with regard to the reopening of educational institutions,” Rymbui said.
The Centre had on July 17 written to the education secretaries of all states seeking feedback of parents regarding reopening of schools.
The ministry wanted information on the likely period when parents will be comfortable with reopening of schools.
When asked if the government is considering promoting the students to the higher classes since only four months are left for the current academic session to end, he said that it is true that there is a general feeling among the majority of the people in the society that the government should consider promoting the students to higher classes.
“But my question is whether promoting students without learning anything is justified. The main objective of sending children to schools is to learn new things. We are hopeful that the situation will improve and we will be able to reopen the schools at the earliest,” Rymbui said.
He also said the department already has a plan in place as the current academic session will spill over to next year.
“We will see how we will work out on the syllabus once we know when we can reopen our schools. We would like to see that our children are able to learn something before they are promoted to higher classes,” he added.