Schools reopened after a gap of two years in the Delhi National Capital Region on Friday, April 1. Sudha Acharya, Chairperson of the National Progressive Schools' Conference (NPSC), which has over 120 private schools as its members, said that students were eagerly awaiting this day. "It is after two years that schools are re-reopening and students were excited to get back to school," she said, according to a report by PTI.
Schools were first shut in March 2020 when the lockdown was imposed. While they did reopen briefly last year, the second wave, the grave pollution levels in Delhi and then, the Omicron wave forced them shut again. Students had been attending only with the consent of their parents and schools had been functioning in the hybrid mode, even for the periods they had reopened.
However, with COVID-19 cases in the country barely crossing 1,000, schools have opened up with full capacity for the first time in two years. The ITL Public School in Dwarka saw teachers preparing special performances, and leading a special prayer as well. "It is like a festival," said the school's principal to PTI.
Parents dropping off their children to school buses with mixed emotions, ensuring that they were carrying sanitiser bottles and well-decorated schools – these were the scenes in Delhi-NCR as institutions resumed offline classes from Friday after a gap of more than two years.
While some areas reported a bit of chaos on the first day, with some school buses running late, parents by and large welcomed the move and stated that the shift back to physical classes from online education is the right one.
