Starting this petition to withstand the long online classes duration proposed by Garden High School (Nursery 2) due to the extension of summer vacation as directed by Govt of West Bengal from June 15, 2022. 

We all have faced extremely challenging times over the last 2 years due to the pandemic and the kids are the ones who are mostly affected by the same. They have not gotten the chance to meet with their friends/schoolmates like they would do under normal circumstances and thus have been facing a lot of psychological problems like social anxiety etc. Things started to get normal from April 2022 as the 2022-23 session started with offline classes after almost 2 years. The kids started to experience the immense joy of finding out what school, friendship, companionships are all about. However, due to the extreme heat wave condition in Kolkata the online classes started again just before the summer vacation in May (for 7-8 days). The duration of the classes before the summer vacation were from 8 AM to 9:55 AM (3 classes of 35 mins each with 5/10 mins breaks in between). 

After the summer vacation, the online classes have been extended again due to the directive given by the govt of West Bengal due to the extreme weather condition. However, now the entire duration for the classes have been increased to 8:40 AM to 12:00 Noon with 4 classes taking place. This notification has been shared with the parents JUST 1 DAY PRIOR to the online classes commencing on 15th June 2022.  Thus, we are requesting the school go back to the previous schedule of 8 AM to 9:55 AM with 3 classes due to the following reasons:

1. The duration of offline classes can never be replicated to that of the online classes for kids of this age. These kids do not have enough attention span to provide the same amount of concentration to online classes that they would normally do in school. It is an unrealistic expectation on them. 
2. These kids are way too young (4-5 years old) to do classes on their own. Muting/unmuting on time, providing 100% attention to the teachers can't be expected to be done by most of these children. 
3. There is also an associated health hazard looking constantly at a screen at such a young age for 3-4 hours. 
4. Most of the parents are working and travelling outside of their respective homes/cities and are mostly not available after 9:30- 10 AM. 
   The offices won't hear excuses of being late due to extended online classes of the children.  
   It is the grandparents who will need to sit with the children to help them with the online classes due to this extended duration and they are not technically expert to handle laptops/mobile phones/tablets etc. 
5. There is a magnified expectation from the parents to leave their work (office or work from home) and sit with the kid for 3-4 hours. 

Thus, we are filing this petition so that the school would go back to the old schedule that was followed right before the summer vacation. 

Regards,

Parents of GHS, N2 class (2022-23)