Mastering the Transition from Online Schooling to Regular Schooling

As schools reopen after months of country-wide lockdown, a unique set of challenges stand in front of the institutions, students and parents before they can expect some normalcy. The obvious challenge definitely surrounds health. Schools need to deploy adequate protective and preventive measures to counter the threat of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Simultaneously, bringing education back on track will also be a struggle as the whole schooling system has somehow fallen out of place and institutions will not be able to utilise their complete arsenal of infrastructure right away to educate students.

In short, students who were completely out of schools will need to settle into the culture of classrooms again. Children who were having online classes will have to get accustomed to direct lectures again. Add to that the regular chores to getting ready for school, travelling by school bus, maintaining punctuality and managing offline assignments and the transition will not seem that smooth anymore. No one can turn on a switch and settle in within a matter of minutes as the disruption will continue to have its dominant say.

With time, however, the transition will become simpler

Go back to the time when the schools were ordered to shut down and you had to settle in that schedule. Surely, it was difficult but gradually it became the new normal. Similarly, once schools start operating, the previous flow is bound to come back with time where all our apprehensions about going back to class will slowly diminish. Students of any play school in Noida Extension will take more time than senior students. Children accustomed to online learning, either through the school or a home curriculum, will also take time to learn from a human teacher again rather than a laptop.

The primary step, thus, to master the transition from online schooling to regular schooling is to make room for patience. And the deserving candidates are not only the students but the teachers, management and parents as well.

Creativity will decide the fluency of transition

Most CBSE schools in Noida Extension will acknowledge that the transition has to happen in steps. Ensuring that will require unhindered creativity from the teachers and the management. For instance, schools should be functioning with staggering hours for the first few months after reopening. Naturally, the focus will lie on the academic curriculum more as engaging in extra-curricular activities can amount to health risks.

Schools can, however, keep the latter flowing by imparting online art lessons or asking students to undertake self-assigned projects in their areas of passion. Including these into assessments can bring in the benefits of extra-curricular activities that the schools used to encourage under normal circumstances. Similarly, a few assignments can still stay online where schools can engage students in group activities over some online platforms. And enabling remote access to study materials and games can also help to fill time productively.

Clear communication between teachers and parents will be vital

Teachers and parents will be on the ground who can directly guide the students during the transition. Understandably, clear communication between the two managers on two ends will determine the efficiency of the process. If the parents have started a new curriculum or routine while at home, the teachers need to know. If the teachers are about to follow a new strategy in class, the parents need to know. As students will shift from their classrooms to homes and back to classrooms again, the educators on two sides need to maintain a clear channel of communication so that nothing fits in the wrong place.

As schools reopen, teachers will again start to set the academic schedules for students. Parents will have the responsibility to maintain that at home during the phase when the schools cannot function in full flow. As and when a difficulty arises, parents can communicate it to the teachers and the latter will now hold the onus to tackle the same in school. Working together, parents and teachers can bring normalcy back in no time at all.

Only the best schools in the list of schools in Noida Extension can adapt seamlessly into this new order. With the right expertise and infrastructure, the top schools can minimise the damage caused by the disruption. The BGS Vijnatham school has been adapting throughout the entire lockdown phase to keep students' education first and it will continue down the same path when the reopening order comes. Patience, creativity and communication are on BGS's cards along with safety and vigilance. As has been the school's constant priority, personalising education to students' needs will set the tone for the transition. BGS students and parents should transit easily as adaptability always ran in the institution's DNA.