Schools, Educational Institutions May Be Allowed To Reopen In Phases From Sept.

New Delhi: Considering the rising trend of positive COVID-19 cases in India, schools and educational institutes continue to remain closed. But for how long?

It’s been learnt that the Central government is trying to work out a phase-wise plan to reopen schools and educational institutes between September 1 and November 14. The government is likely to unveil its final Unlock guidelines later this month.

All educational institutes have been closed in India since March 24, when the Union government announced lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic. Schools, colleges and universities have been relying on online mode since then to teach students and conduct examinations.

The specifics about reopening educational institutes are being formulated by the secretaries and Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 management, according to a report in The Economic Times.

Sources said that the government will issue broad Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs), and leave the decision on when and how to restart classroom teaching to the respective state governments.

The suggestion is that Class 10 and Class 12 students be asked to attend school for the first 15 days after reopening of schools. Class 6 to 9 students will then be asked to go to schools with restricted hours.

The entire batch of one class will, however, not attend school the same day initially. Different sections of a class will have specific days assigned for attending school.

Sanitisation of classrooms will be a major highlight of the Centre’s SOP. Schools will be asked to operate in shifts – for instance, from 8 to 11 am and 12 noon to 3 pm, with an hour’s gap for the process of thorough sanitisation.

The report further says that there is no immediate plan to get primary and pre-primary kids back to the classrooms.