India
After a nod from the Supreme Court, CAQM says schools in Delhi should open in hybrid mode; Grap-4 curbs remain | India News – Times of India
The Air Quality Management Commission (CAQM) allowed hybrid classes in Delhi-NCR schools, hours after the Supreme Court asked it to examine the granting of relaxation in measures related to educational institutions.
Classes can be held in hybrid mode from Tuesday, CAQM said. “The option to exercise the online mode, wherever available, shall rest with students and their guardians,” the order said.
Earlier, SC asked CAQM to take a call on relaxing Grap thresholds for online classes. With physical classes suspended, the court said poor students could not avail mid-day meals and many had no facilities to participate in online classes.
Other conditions imposed under Grap-4 would remain in force until further orders, the court said, while condemning authorities for not adhering to CAQM’s order banning trucks from entering the capital.
Delhi’s AQI slipped to ‘very poor’ at 339 after improving to ‘poor’ on Sunday.
Schools are moving in one direction after another to become ‘hybrid’
All classes up to Class
Following the Supreme Court’s direction on Monday to relax certain restrictions under GRAP Stage-IV, CAQM announced that NCR cities would conduct classes in a hybrid mode, comprising physical and online modes, until further notice. “The option to exercise the online mode of education, wherever available, shall rest with the students and their guardians,” the CAQM order said. said.
In its decision, the committee also stated that NCR authorities may consider conducting online classes in all other districts, in addition to those mentioned in the decision. “Further, wide publicity will be given for immediate implementation (of the order) by all concerned authorities in Delhi-NCR,” CAQM said.
The apex court on Monday asked the air management panel to take a call to relax the order on mandatory online classes under GRAP phases III and IV, noting that many students would miss out on the benefit of mid-day meals, and many of them not. have facilities to take online classes and many educational institutions did not have facilities to provide online education. The court also noted that “many students’ homes do not have air purifiers, and therefore there may be no difference between the children at home and the children at school.”
Meanwhile, the city’s schools prepared for the new challenge. Sunita, director of Ravi Shankar SKV in Bawana, said, “We are unlikely to opt for hybrid, but if it happens, we will have to reorganize our class schedule and teachers’ work as we require teachers to be available for both modes at the same time We will have to combine sections for lessons on similar topics, especially in online mode. Offline mode will depend on the strength of the classroom.’
Rooma Pathak, principal of MM Public School, Pitampura, said: “It is difficult to function this way. We tried the hybrid mode once but it turned out to be ineffective for the students. A camera filmed the teacher conducting the lessons followed as usual. Students at home could watch these images.”
On November 14, Prime Minister Atishi had announced that all primary classes would switch to online mode after air quality in the city reached ‘severe’ levels. Three days later, on November 17, CAQM ordered the implementation of GRAP Stage IV, which, in relation to school education, allows the government to move more classes to online mode.
And as air quality continued to deteriorate, the Supreme Court intervened and ordered all classes to take place online on November 18 – the most polluted day of the current winter season. The court had also kept the GRAP Stage IV restrictions intact until further notice. On Monday, after leaving the ‘severe’ zone in recent days, AQI said CAQM may consider ordering mandatory online classes in schools.
