The schools, colleges, and other educational institutions across several states, including Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and many more will reopen today i.e. on September 1. A few special protocols are meant to adhere to the government-necessitated coronavirus disease (Covid-19) guidelines. SOPs have been released to ensure the safety of students which include staggered lunch breaks, minimum seating capacity in class, masking and sanitization protocols, etc.
The decision to reopen schools was taken after a significant drop in the number of COVID-19 cases was seen in the country. For most of the states, attendance has been made voluntary.
While Tamil Nadu will reopen schools only for classes 9-12, Delhi, and Rajasthan will reopen physical classes for 9-12 students along with colleges, universities, and coaching institutes.
In Delhi, while the classes for standards 9 to 12 are resuming from today, those for standards 6 to 8 are slated to resume from September 8. However, the Delhi government has clarified that no student would be forced to physically attend classes. While several schools in the national capital also opting for a ‘wait-and-watch strategy to see how the situation progresses before they call in all their students.
Uttar Pradesh will reopen the school for primary classes (1 to 5) from September 1. All the schools have been directed by the respective state governments to strictly follow the COVID-19 standard operating procedure (SOPs) that have already been issued.
The Haryana government has decided to reopen primary schools for Classes 4 and 5starting from today. Students will be allowed to come to the school with the prior written permission of their parents.
The schools in Puducherry will resume from today for classes 9 to 12 with 50% capacity. The school will hold classes in two shifts–morning and evening in an alternate manner. Schools in Assam will resume physical classes for 10 to 12 from today
Meanwhile, though schools in Telangana were scheduled to reopen from September 1, the Telangana High Court has stayed the government’s decision saying physical classes are not mandatory. “No student from any school private or government, KG to class 12, shall be compelled to attend physical classes from Sept 1,” the high court said.
School reopening: Guidelines for physical classes to be followed
- All the schools will open with 50 percent capacity in all the aforesaid states
- All the teaching, non-teaching staff, drivers of buses, cabs, and auto-rickshaws ferrying the students to and from schools need to get at least the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination
- Students will need to produce consent letters from parents to attend in-person classes at school
- All the educations institutes will sanitise the premises regularly and keep an extra stock of masks for students
- All will bring food and drinking water from home and eat lunch in their respective classrooms without mingling with others
- Maintain proper social distancing is a must
- Students can opt to continue attending online classes without any effect on attendance
- Students and teachers will undergo thermal scanning at the entry gate
- Tamil Nadu schools are asked to prepare scheduled with short duration classes so that the students are not needed to spend a long time at school
- Rajasthan government will put restrictions on conducting assembly prayers, sports activities, and distributing cooked mid-day meals
- Delhi government has decided to set up a quarantine centre in every school for emergency use
- Teaching work of children in primary schools of Rajasthan will be done in two shifts with the first shift being from 8 am to 11 am second shift from 11.30 am
- Classes will take place in blended mode – both online and physical in all states.