Playtime
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Highlights
- Daycares have reopened. Kids are once again exploring natural curiosities as work and play normalise post coronavirus pandemic
- ‘Online no alternative to face-to-face learning’
By Iffath Fathima
As Bengaluru heads back to normalcy after the fallout of the pandemic, day schools for children that were shut down are now gradually opening.
Some parents who had started working from home, and some returning to their offices, are now sending children to daycares. Many parents feel they don’t want their children to miss out on the critical playtime, learning and interactions with others.
Now, with the cases down, people moving about and all relaxations, daycare centres are ready to welcome kids again; the schools are seeing an increase in the number of admissions.
Asma Parveen , principal of Asian Kids at Platinum City , Peenya, said the daycare and play group school opened in November last year. “Back then, most parents opted for online sessions. However, in December they started to send children in-person. But with omicron scare, we had to close down again. We opened up again this year — we started from five kids. Now I have 32 children. I am still getting queries for admissions. Right now, we are functioning for half a day till 1:00 pm; parents are asking us to make it a full day.”
Parveen added that most of the children were ‘mentally disturbed’ at the daycare. “The children did not want to interact with others. They wanted to be by themselves. Most of them were quite indisciplined. They didn’t listen to the teachers; it took us three months to discipline them. Now they are getting used to the atmosphere of the school,” she said.
Gina Matthai , COO, TLC Montessori Pre School , which had four functional branches in the city — at Koramangala, HSR Layout, Manyata Tech Park and Cambridge Layout — had to shut three centres during the pandemic; Now the school is functioning at Cambridge Layout. We couldn’t pay the high rents during the pandemic as the children had stopped coming. We had to close down branches. Since Cambridge Layout is our own place, we could keep it. Now, younger parents are sending children as many have started working from offices. The parents felt children were missing out on socialising and interactions with peers. We are seeing children aged four years; they do not know how to interact. Initially we had online classes; this age group cannot learn much through online interactions. In February, parents started requesting us to open the school; now we have many admissions. We even get children who go to other schools dropped to our daycare in the afternoon. As we are open till the evening we get many kids. Unlike other places, who have coordinators to take care of the children, we have appointed teachers,” said Matthai.
One of the parents BM spoke to was happy about the daycares opening. “As a working parent, it is indeed a blessing that my child’s daycare school has opened at the right time. As work from the office has commenced for us, I now go to the office with the assurance that our son is in safe hands. Moreover, he is happy to be at the daycare as it gives him quality playtime — mingling with friends of his age, that he had missed due to the pandemic,” saidSania Fernandez , public relations professional and mom to a toddler of 3.5 years.
Priti Anand , director of Early Years, Neev Schools, pointed out that 90% of the students are currently attending school in-person across the five EY branches starting February.
“Two years of online learning have taught us that online sessions can work but there is no alternative for Face-to-Face (F2F) learning which is the best. The hybrid option is tough for students and teachers alike. We continue with synchronous online learning, slowly allowing the students to return to school, ensuring the right focus across programmes. We are slowly returning to normalcy and building the social life and culture of the school, which goes beyond the classrooms, corridors, sandpit, art area and such,” said Anand.
As Bengaluru heads back to normalcy after the fallout of the pandemic, day schools for children that were shut down are now gradually opening.
Some parents who had started working from home, and some returning to their offices, are now sending children to daycares. Many parents feel they don’t want their children to miss out on the critical playtime, learning and interactions with others.
During the initial phases of the pandemic, with the lockdowns and other restrictions in place, many daycares had shut down. Even after the second wave, when things were getting back to normal, some daycares had opened up; however, with the onset of the third wave, these were shut once again.
Now, with the cases down, people moving about and all relaxations, daycare centres are ready to welcome kids again; the schools are seeing an increase in the number of admissions.
Parveen added that most of the children were ‘mentally disturbed’ at the daycare. “The children did not want to interact with others. They wanted to be by themselves. Most of them were quite indisciplined. They didn’t listen to the teachers; it took us three months to discipline them. Now they are getting used to the atmosphere of the school,” she said.
Parents felt children were missing out on socialising and interactions with peers…
One of the parents BM spoke to was happy about the daycares opening. “As a working parent, it is indeed a blessing that my child’s daycare school has opened at the right time. As work from the office has commenced for us, I now go to the office with the assurance that our son is in safe hands. Moreover, he is happy to be at the daycare as it gives him quality playtime — mingling with friends of his age, that he had missed due to the pandemic,” said
.
“Two years of online learning have taught us that online sessions can work but there is no alternative for Face-to-Face (F2F) learning which is the best. The hybrid option is tough for students and teachers alike. We continue with synchronous online learning, slowly allowing the students to return to school, ensuring the right focus across programmes. We are slowly returning to normalcy and building the social life and culture of the school, which goes beyond the classrooms, corridors, sandpit, art area and such,” said Anand.
