Rural schools in Goa report a high attendance rate as physical classes resume after 8 months

With the permission of the state, all schools and educational institutions in Goa resumed physical classes for class X and XII, November 21 onwards and the strength of the institutions in rural Goa, witnessed a major improvement in just a week's time. This rapidly normalizing attendance rate in the rural schools have been largely pegged to the lack of digital infrastructure, that were creating problems for the pupils to stream online classes on a regular basis. By consequence, several village schools in the state have taken a decision to discontinue offline classes, embracing classroom-teaching for the sessions of classes X and XII.

Back to school in rural Goa

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The school authorities have highlighted the fact that rural school set-ups have a manageable strength, which can be accommodated in shifts, adhering to the norms of social distancing inside classrooms. They also stated that the parents/guardians of the students have been appraised about the safety measures and arrangements inducted by school authorities for conducting classes amid the pandemic. Online sessions will be conducted only for classes VI to XII, school authorities added.

According to the former President of the Goa Headmasters' Association, about 30% of the schools in rural state regions were not connected to the digital landscape. Students, on the other hand, faced issues ranging from accessibility to smartphone devices to to connectivity and network problems, which only added to their troubles during the lockdown.

Schools in city opt for blended offline-online module

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Unlike country-side institutions, urban academic establishments have decided to stick to the online module, as the issues of the rural regions do not apply here. According to urban school managements, most students have solved the issues of both connectivity and accessibility to online classes while adapting to the new digitized teaching pattern and learning platform. Here, the students also don't wish to shift from the pattern they are aligned to.

Urban educational institutions have also pointed out that they are utilizing the physical classes to only conduct the pending practicals for the students of Class X and XII, who are now permitted by the state to attend school. These schools have said that they will conduct online classes in the morning and the physical sessions will be used for solving doubts and covering practical classes in labs.

The bigger institutions in the urban townships have also highlighted that they cannot adhere to the state established norms of seating 12 students in one class, given their higher enrollment numbers. Conducting classes in shifts will only tire the teaching staff to repeat the same portion, about 3 times.