Kolkata: After 20 months, reaching school won’t be the same – Times of India

Kolkata News
KOLKATA: As students gear up to head back to schools from this week after a gap of 20 months, school commute is set to be very different.
Most parents are considering dropping them on their own. The rest are still in two minds — whether to send their children in school buses and pool cars like before or not. Pool car owners and school bus operators have very few takers.

Class-X student Oishi Ghosh has been super excited to get back to her new senior section classroom and meet old friends at Mahadevi Birla World Academy. So has been her mother, who had been among the very few to have been paying the carpool operator 50% of the fee all these months waiting eagerly for the day. But when the actual day has arrived, they are in two minds.
“She has her board exams from next week itself and I have no intention to send her in carpool as of now. I plan to drop her in our own car for the few days she has to go to school in the next few weeks. We will take a call on whether or not to send her in a carpool later,” said Sujata Ghosh, a resident of Kasba.
Tamali Chowdhury, a single mother, is also going through the same dilemma, though she has paid the school bus fee for her son at DPS Ruby Park till December this year.
“I still shiver thinking about the Covid situation our city was in two months after school had opened in February. I had opted for offline studies and thankfully, my child was safe. Even now, I will be sending my son to school but I will avoid sending him in a school bus just to minimize any chances of infection,” said Chowdhury, a resident of Madurdaha.
There are also a large number of parents like Sinjini Chowdhury from Santoshpur and Kishalay Basu from Behala who have de-rostered their children — both students of South Point — from pool car and school bus, respectively to avoid the excess fee. They do not intend to get them registered at least for this session.
Sudip Dutta, secretary of Pool Car Owners’ Welfare Association said hardly any parents are contacting them and estimated barely 1%-2% out of the registered 3,500-odd pool cars in Kolkata, South and North 24 Parganas and Howrah may actually ply on Tuesday.
“I have personally received only one query from a guardian so far. The same has been the situation for most operators whom very few guardians are contacting to resume services. The staggered school timing of different classes are also acting as a deterrent for some. But with the majority of drivers, helpers and ayahs shifting to other professions, there will be a major scarcity,” said Dutta.
Anurag Agarwal, who operates the city’s largest school bus fleet, also shared similar emotions as he hinted very few school buses may actually begin operations owing to the fact that very few students are actually opting for them now. Private bus owners are planning to increase their fleet along routes of major schools, colleges and universities from Monday. However, they said they would wait for a week to gauge the response and decide on the next course of action.
(With inputs from Dwaipayan Ghosh)

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/after-20-months-reaching-school-wont-be-the-same/articleshow/87704281.cms