In flu season, schools save on lost time

Among a slew of initiatives that some of the City schools are planning are extra classes after daily schedule, classes over weekends, curtailed vacation and deferring examinations. Over the past few days, principals of various schools have been conducting regular meetings to exchange ideas on how to make up for the time lost.

According to Delhi Public School-South Principal Manju Sharma, the school was in fact running behind schedule. It is now taking steps to keep up with the school’s calendar of events. “School activities and other functions have been slowed down as precautionary measures. Extra classes after regular class hours have been conducted and weekend classes for high school too are in progress,” she said.

National Public School has decided to curtail vacations and will also conduct extra classes over the weekends for Class XI and XII students. A few schools have even rescheduled routine trips.

Sharma said the school trips were being postponed because of the panic caused by the H1N1 influenza. “The annual school trip has been postponed to November as of now. DPS also sends students to National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the United States, every year. But this time we have pushed it to November and once the situation is reviewed we may postpone it to February 2010,” she explained.

The attendance percentage continues to be low at the kindergarten level while the other classes have satisfactory attendance, maintained Sharma. Other schools are cutting down on extracurricular activities like music and physical education. Sudarshan Vidya Mandir Principal Hema Narayan said her school was trying to make up for lost time and has postponed the mid-term examination. It will now be held after the Dasara holidays.

“We have been utilising the Saturdays to conduct extra classes,” explained Narayan.
Several city schools, whose schedules went awry following the H1N1 influenza scare, had instantly shut down. Fumigation of school premises and regular screening of children for cold, cough and fever are steps that have been taken by the respective authorities. “We are trying to bring in positive outlook amongst parents and children,” added Narayan.

DH News Service