Classes 6-9 have completed their Final examinations for which from Monday,
March 8, 2021, the duration of classes will be shortened and will be as follows:
Classes 6-7: 8.30 to 10 am
Classes 8-9: 8 to 9.30 am
Thursday, March 04, 2021
Dear Parent/Guardian
This is to inform you that a TCS Coordination Committee has been recently formed with guardians from all four sections of the school – Junior School, Middle School, O Levels and A Levels – as well as the Principal and the Coordinators of the school to meet and discuss several issues, including the extraordinary one of resuming in-person classes during the next academic year.
The Committee met virtually for the first time on Tuesday, 2nd March. A report on the deliberations of the committee is given below for the information of all guardians.
PRESENT:
Guardians: Dr. Arnab Chattopadhyay, Dr. Tamal Kanti Ghosh, Dr. Michelle Harrison, Ms Priyanka Bhaduri, Dr. Keya Mukhopadhyay, Ms Yuvika Iyer, Mrs. Susmita Sarkar, and Ms Ranjana Chakraborty.
Teachers: Mrs. Sunita Chowdhary, Mrs. Jasmine Sahani, Mrs. Sampa Dhar and Ms Smeeta Basu.
DISCUSSION:
The following issues were discussed:
1) RESUMING IN-PERSON CLASSES: Parents feel it is advisable to move very cautiously and start classes after summer vacations. It is impractical to resume classes in April, considering that a second wave of Covid may be imminent, from the pattern of earlier epidemics, and also that numbers of Covid-affflicted people seem to be increasing.
2) TEACHERS: In view of the recent incident of Karnataka, where many children and teachers were infected with the virus after schools reopened, vaccination of the teachers was discussed. This has already started in West Bengal on priority basis and should give our teachers necessary protection. However, it was also pointed out that even if teachers get vaccinated, scientific information/immunity data is still not known, as the virus is prone to change very quickly.
3) HYBRID MODEL OF TEACHING /LEARNING: It was suggested and agreed that when in-person classes resume, a hybrid model would be followed, at least for some time. A hybrid model means a combination of in-person and online classes. Several suggestions were made, such as Tests/ Grading to continue online so that teachers do not have to handle paper physically, and such hybrid classes being conducted for alternate groups on alternate days. The school will decide on these aspects closer to the time when in-person classes resume. A parent suggested reducing the syllabi of junior classes a bit as wi-fi connections create problems at times.
4) SOCIAL CONCERNS FOR CHILDREN: Guardians and teachers agreed that Covid has taken a heavy toll on socialization as Social Distancing is difficult for children and yet they have their emotional needs to interact with each other. After-examination online activities should help.
5) PRECAUTIONS: Fumigation, Social distancing, Consent forms from parents before resuming in-person classes were suggested. Guardians were informed that as the Board Examinations for A2 Level students are being held now, the school is already following Covid protocols, like school sanitization every day before and after each examination, compulsory mask-wearing, temperature checks at the gate, sanitization of hands, open doors and windows with no air-conditioning to prevent spread of virus. In response to guardian concerns, it was assured that children would be sent back home from school in case any symptom was evident, and also that there would be regular cleaning and sanitizing of toilets.
6) LENIENCY TOWARDS LEAVES: An individual carrying the virus is most infectious around the time of onset of the symptoms which are usually very mild. Children or teachers with such mild initial symptoms and at the most infectious stage of the disease may consider ignoring their slight physical discomforts and come to school to meet some important deadlines. Unwittingly, they would be spreading the infection to others. The school should encourage such individuals to abstain from attending and assure that they would not be penalized for absences, so that he/she does not infect others. It must be notified to all parents that children with even mild symptoms must not come to school. Also, parents need to be reassured that leaves will not lead to any kind of penalties for their wards.
7) ECONOMY MEASURES: The school will have to adopt some economy measures, because it has been severely affected, like many guardians, by the pandemic. Some are being explored such as doing away with the pre-pandemic practise of issuing exercise books which do not represent a major outlay for guardians but a substantial amount for the school.
However, such measures as not running air-conditioners till such time that Covid is a threat, and issuing e-books or copied books are not economy measures. Many books could not be sourced last year for which e-books and copied books had to be issued. It is also the case this year, but on a much lower scale as most books could be located, and have already been ordered.
8) THOUGHTS ON ONLINE CLASSES: Guardians said that all teachers are working very hard with online classes and they congratulated teachers on that count. Teachers expressed gratitude to parents and also thanked those present in the meeting for their suggestions and concerns for teachers’ well-being.
