Students back to school in Maharashtra for new academic year

MUMBAI: Two years after the Covid-19 pandemic, the new academic year 2022-23 moved offline across the state from today. Despite a rapid rise in infections, schools are expecting full-fledged physical classes. Schools had briefly returned to 100% offline towards the end of the academic year 2021-22 in March.
State school education minister Varsha Gaikwad last night tweeted.
"The joy of covering books with brown paper, polishing the canvas shoes, shopping for the latest style raincoat, sharing stories of summer vacation on the first day--all this was lost for two years. It is time to do all this again as we go #BacktoSchool. "
Schools in Vidarbha start from June 27 due to the intense heat wave conditions. Last year, the academic year began online before switching to the hybrid mode in October. The minister will be visiting schools in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
In Mumbai, secondary and higher secondary students made their way to schools in the morning and were welcomed with music and flowers. Majority of students were in their uniforms and most of them had donned masks. At the Hansraj Morarji Public School and Junior College in Andheri, parents walked their students to the school. School buses, back on the roads, were filled with happy children. Last year, Mumbai schools had to teach online for a longer period due to a rise in infections.
Schools began with the morning assembly, singing of the school song and playing the national anthem. Principals said the day will be spent in allowing students to get a feel of their classrooms and playground. As learning begins, the initial 30 days will be devoted to bridge courses. On June 17-18 students will take pre-tests to understand their learning outcome in their previous standard. A post-test will be conducted for students on June 25-26 to understand the students grasping ability.
A few non-state board schools that reopened from June 1 have begun switching higher classes online due to poor attendance owing to Covid infections to students or their family members. An ICSE school in south Mumbai has moved classes online for its middle and senior secondary students from June 16 to 22. Students will return to physical classes from June 23 after getting negative RT-PCR reports. Students of other classes will continue to attend offline school. The state Covid-19 protocol allows schools to move some classes online in case students of a particular class or standard test positive.
Schools have been asked to share their #Best1stDay experiences on Twitter @thxteacher.