Shekhar Kapur says social interaction crucial for school kids, mulls over Zoom classrooms

Veteran Bollywood director Shekhar Kapur took to his social media account and expressed his concerns for school going kids who have been under lockdown across the country. He shared his view that with online classes being conducted via Zoom, children are missing out on the essential social development that is only provided in schools when interacting with others. He labeled the kids' time under lockdown as 'lost years' and urged his followers to think seriously about the children.

Kapur wrote, "As classrooms move to Zoom, its time to seriously look at what might become the ‘lost years’ for school kids. For the lockdown environment at home is often not great. Nowhere are the essentials of play, social interaction more important than in the formative years of school kids."

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Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has written to HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank supporting the ministry in its initiative to reopen schools with reasonable guidelines. Sisodia, who also heads the Delhi Education Ministry, wrote, "First of all we need to assure every child, irrespective of age and social class that they are important to us and all of them have an equal right to physical and intellectual space of their respective schools. The clamor of online teaching or older children coming to school first and not the younger ones should be put to rest."

Read his letter here:

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Phase-wise reopening

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has stated that lockdown in containment zones will continue till June 30, allowing only essential activities and no movement of people in or out of it. The MHA has stated that all activities will be allowed in other areas except certain activities that will be allowed to restart in phases. It has also imposed a night curfew from 9:00 PM to 5 AM and banned international air travel, metro rails, cinema halls,  gymnasiums, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres, bars and auditoriums and any functions or large gathering. 

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• Phase 1: From June 8, religious places, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls will be allowed to reopen but will have to adhere to SOPs which will be issued by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW)
• Phase 2: Schools, colleges and other educational institutions will be opened in consultation with respective states and Union Territories from July 2020. An SOP will be issued for the same by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW)
• Phase 3: After further assessment of the prevalent COVID-19 conditions, resuming of international air travel, metros, cinema halls, gymnasiums, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres, bars, auditoriums, social/political/sports/religious/cultural functions will be decided.

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