Hyderabad: Parents turn tutors at home, unwilling to admit children in schools

Hyderabad: Scores of parents in the City, who were hopeful to enrol their children in pre-primary classes in the academic year 2021-22 keeping the previous year conditions in mind, are now unwilling to send them to schools due to Covid cases.

Noticing the current virus environment across the City, a few have begun tutoring their kids at home, sparing time from their professional life. While some don't want them to enrol, as they do not want children to engage in online classes, to skip this year and to admit them next year.

Mahesh and Shalini are working professionals, who were to admit their five-year-old daughter in UKG class last year. As the second wave turned worse, they started to take alternate shifts to tutor her. They shared: "Rather than skipping this year, like last year, we planned accordingly and started to take classes for her and planned physical activity sessions. Staying away from school will mean that children will be devoid of holistic learning and grasping power abilities. We are keeping her updated so we can enrol her in class 1 in 2022. We are making her familiar with books, rather than online classes."

Similarly, many parents have become teachers-cum-parents while handling their professional life, realizing children can be taught at home. "I've been juggling between imparting knowledge to my eight-year-old daughter, who is in class III. But as my three-year-old son needs our attention, we spend time to give foundation lessons. I've skipped two years for my son's admission. I'm fretting over his future." said Umesh, who is planning to discontinue his daughter's online classes and enrol her for tuition classes, citing the hefty amount of fee to be paid for online classes.

Another parent, while being concerned about the screen time, has taken out her six-year-old son from online classes due to the "over screen time". "He was not indulging in any physical activity nor any improvement was seen. We were paying in lakhs which made no sense to me. There is no hurry; we can spare them the screen time and let them enjoy their childhood." Said V Akaash.

A primary teacher of Little Flower High School said there were very few admissions in pre-primary classes last year. Even this year the same is being followed, saying a number of parents took the responsibility of teaching upon themselves.

"Many who are admitted in pre-primary sections are stuck at home staring at laptop screen rather than enjoying games, experiencing social interactions at school." said Osama, principal, Little Stars School.