Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government has authorised the School and Mass Education Department to decide on the date of reopening of schools and hostels for Classes IX to XII in a graded manner in adherence to COVID-19 norms.
The COVID-19 guidelines for February, issued by the Special Relief Commissioner on Saturday, have also authorised the ST & SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare department and Social Security, Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities department to take the call for the educational institutions under their jurisdiction.
Similar authorisation has been issued to the Department of Higher Education regarding colleges, education institutions and hostels under its control and Skill Development and Technical Education department on engineering colleges and other technical and skill development institutions.
The fresh norms have allowed conduct of examinations in academic, technical and skill development institutions.
Besides, the department concerned is permitted to call teaching and non-teaching staff to school/college/institution for online teaching/tele counselling and related works in areas outside the containment zones.
The guidelines further mentioned that Anganwadi centres in the state will reopen from February 1.
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