hyderabad after nearly 11 months schools and colleges in telangana reopened for physical classes on monday with all precautionary measures in view of covid19 pandemicstudents of 9th standard and above returned to class rooms following all safety guidelines like wearing masks and following social distancing the schools provided masks to those who did not have one arranged hand sanitisers and checked the body temperature of students with thermal guns before allowing them inthe schools junior colleges degree colleges and postdegree colleges reopened with all precautionary measures in place to check the spread of covid19the educational institutions resumed the classes with staggered timings and restricted the maximum number of students in a class room to 20 to ensure physical distancingthe schools allowed the students after taking consent letters from parents it was mixed feelings for students while they were happy to return to class rooms and meet their teachers and friends after a long gap the overall mood was apprehensive and one of cautionthe normal scenes of a group of students huddling together for a chitchat were not witnessed the seating arrangement in class rooms was to ensure six feet distance in governmentrun mahabubia girls high school in hyderabad for instance one student was sitting on one bench instead of two to three in precovid daysthe state has 14252 high schools and 2464 junior colleges and over 1000 degree colleges many private schools had staggered timings to avoid crowdinga teacher at mahabubia school said they ensured cleaning of all class rooms before reopening the school markings were made on the ground at the entrance to ensure that the students maintain physical distancewe are ensuring there is no crowding in classes ground or during lunch the teacher said the school conducted meeting with parents before resuming classes since 10th standard is a key turning point in the life of students the parents wanted to send the children for physical classesteachers hope that the students will get confidence with interaction with their teachers and they will be ready to learn morein some private schools classes for 50 per cent of the students were conducted during morning hours while the remaining were called after lunch to avoid crowdingmy son who is in 10th standard will be spending only three hours i have suggested to the school authorities to take classes on alternate days so that he can spend a few hours every day and benefit from offline classes today is the first day and i hope things will improve in coming days said mohammed rafi whose son studies at a leading private schoolmost of the schools saw 50 per cent attendance on the first day of reopening the attendance was good despite the fact that the schools were reopening after a long time and pandemic is still around but as confidence grows we expect more parents will send their wards said ahmed ali a teacher at government boys high school shah gunjali who teaches mathematics said the students were happy to return to classes