News Analysis India

Tag: schools reopen

  • Schools, colleges in Bengal to reopen from November 15, says CM Mamata Banerjee

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said schools and colleges would reopen from November 15, and directed the chief secretary to take necessary measures to facilitate the process.

    Banerjee, after attending an administrative review meeting at Uttar Kanya in Siliguri, asked Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi to ensure proper cleaning and sanitisation of educational institutions before they reopen.

    Schools and colleges in the state have been closed since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March last year.

  • Jharkhand lockdown relaxations: Sunday restrictions lifted, students of VI and above can go to schools

    Express News Service

    RANCHI: As the cases of COVID-19 showing a decreasing trend in Jharkhand, the state government has allowed schools to commence classes for students of Grade VI  and above. Announcing more relaxations to the lockdown (Swasth Suraksha Saptah), all shops will be allowed to remain open on Sundays along with the hotels and restaurants.

    The decision was taken during a meeting of the Disaster Management department headed by Chief Minister Hemant Soren. “Sunday restrictions have been removed completely and all shops and business establishments may remain open from now onwards,” said Health Minister Banna Gupta. Hotels and restaurants have been allowed to open till 11 pm, which earlier were asked to close at 10 pm only, he added.

    The minister said that schools have also been allowed to commence classes for standard VI onwards. The students, however, will be allowed to attend classes only with the consent of their parents, he added.

    In addition to that, the minister said, all religious places have been allowed to open for devotees which certain restrictions. “A maximum of 50 devotees will be allowed to enter in small temples, while in big temples, the maximum limit will be of 100 devotees every hour,” said Gupta. It will be mandatory to take at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine for the priests and other people managing the religious places, he added.

    Gupta said that there will also be a restriction on the entry of devotees below 18 years of age and aggregation of more than 50 per cent of its total capacity at a religious place, he said.

  • Group of doctors, academicians calls for immediate resumption of in-person classes in schools 

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: A group of 56 academicians, doctors and other professionals have written an open letter to chief ministers and union territory administrators requesting them to urgently consider reopening schools and resuming in-person classes.

    In their letter which has also been marked to the Prime Minister’s Office, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the National Disaster Management Authority Chairperson, the signatories said COVID-19 vaccination of children should not be a prerequisite for reopening schools.

    “A number of governments have not yet reopened schools for all classes because of concerns including students are not vaccinated, schools appear to be ‘super-spreaders’, fear of a third wave and a rise in cases in areas where schools have been opened.

    …There is global evidence to support school opening and governments should urgently consider opening schools and resuming in-person classes,” the letter reads.

    India is among only four to five countries across the world where schools have been closed for such a long time (one-and-half years), it said.

    “There is an urgent need to bring children back to school. Since younger children are least at risk, we urge you to permit primary schools to open first, in line with ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) recommendations, and then higher classes.

    We look forward to leaders across political parties coming together for the sake of our children,” the letter stated.

    The signatories said vaccination is not a prerequisite for reopening schools, stating the purpose of vaccination is to prevent severe illness and death and children are at relatively low risk of severe or fatal COVID-19.

    “Therefore, the benefit of vaccinating children is limited, as they have a low rate of moderate to severe disease and mortality is already low,” the letter said.

    The letter further highlighted the need for recognising the scale of costs of school closure.

    It said the issue of school reopening is played up as a “life vs education” issue which is a flawed perspective.

    “It is well known that lack of education for students, particularly girls, affects the health and livelihood of the next generation too. These are extreme costs. Governments and task forces must strike a balance of risks, and such balance is overwhelmingly in favour of opening schools,” the letter said.

    The signatories include epidemiologist Chandrakant Lahariya, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine national president and Lancet Commission COVID-19 India Task Force member Suneela Garg, former president of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics Naveen Thacker, and Teach For India CEO Shaheen Mistri.

  • COVID-19: Schools to remain shut in Bengal, Kerala

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  With Delhi joining states cautiously reopening schools despite the Covid-19 pandemic, there are a few states where educational institutes will remain shut in September. The states and UTs where the local administration is yet to decide on this iclude Kerala, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Goa and Puducherry. Other than Kerala, where the Covid situation is the worst in the country, it is more or less stable in other states.

    In other states, students have either been called or are being called back to classrooms from the first week of next month, although attendance in places where schools started in July and August have remained low. In most states, a cap of 50% attendance has been imposed and schools have also been instructed to offer a choice of online or offline mode.

    While a majority of the states have decided to open only secondary and senior secondary schools, Andhra Pradesh has allowed opening of schools at all levels including nursery. Experts have opined that young kids are particularly less susceptible to serious disease. The Centre, while stressing on vaccination of school teachers and other support staff, has promised a supply of two crore vaccine doses for them.

    The announcement by the Delhi government, meanwhile, comes a day after NK Arora, chief of Centre’s working group on Covid-19, insisted that the time has come for schools to resume classes in a phased manner. He also suggested that teachers, non-teaching staff as well as drivers associated with schools should be vaccinated to create a protective ring around the students, reiterating that “children don’t get very sick with Covid-19”.

    On Friday, over 50 doctors, public health experts, academicians and scientists also issued an open letter saying that school closure is “no longer tenable, especially for our younger children who are at the least risk from Covid-19 and face the highest cost due to school closure”.

  • Schools, higher education institutions to reopen in Tripura from August 25

    By PTI

    AGARTALA: The Tripura government has decided to reopen schools for students of classes 6 to 12, along with other higher educational institutions, from Wednesday, officials said.

    The government has issued two separate notifications with detailed guidelines regarding the resumption of physical classes in both schools and other academic institutions.

    “In view of the decline in COVID test positivity rate in Tripura and considering the learning losses that have already occurred, the Department of Education (school), with the approval of State Disaster Management Authority, has decided to start physical classes for students of classes VI to XII from August 25,” said a notification issued on Monday by Director of School Education Chandni Chandran.

    According to the government notification, all schools will have to function in single or double shifts, depending on the space available in the classrooms.

    Authorities have been asked to ensure that alternate seats in schools stay unoccupied.

    Students and teachers have been asked to strictly adhere to COVID-19 norms.

    “As teachers of classes 5 and below do not have regular classes to take, they would be engaged in the Catch Up campaign of Nutun Disha program (an initiative of the state government aimed at making all students efficient and capable),” the notification said.

    A separate notification issued by Higher Education Director NC Sharma said colleges, institutes, and varsities (general, technical, and professional) would also be re-opened from Wednesday.

    Faculties have been instructed to arrange for extra classes, if necessary.

    If adequate space is not available or there is a shortage of teachers, institutes have been told to set up different time slots for batches, or any other measure they find appropriate.

    College hostels would, however, reopen only on September 1, maintaining all guidelines issued by the state government, the notification added.

  • More than 300 schools in Mizoram’s coronavirus-free areas to reopen 

    By PTI

    AIZAWL: More than 300 schools in COVID-19 free areas in Mizoram have been allowed to reopen for the new academic session 2021-2022, an official of the School Education department said.

    The new COVID-19 guidelines issued by the state government on August 8 had allowed the re-opening of schools in areas outside the Aizawl Municipal Corporation’s jurisdiction where there is no coronavirus case, the official said on Sunday.

    The school education department had on August 9 issued an order allowing re-opening of schools for primary to higher secondary level in COVID-19 free towns and villages subject to prior consultation with deputy commissioners.

    A standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the department shall be strictly followed, the order had said.

    School Education department director James Lalrinchhana told PTI that at least 376 schools in seven districts, including Aizawl district, have been allowed to re-open for the new academic session 2021-2022.

    Majority of the permitted schools have already started regular classes, while 27 more schools in Khawzawl district will be re-opened from Monday, he said.

    He said that the School Education department is currently undertaking identification of schools in COVID-19 free areas and more schools will be re-opened in the next few days.

    At least 49 schools have so far been allowed to re-open in Aizawl district, 151 in Champhai, 74 in Serchhip, 47 in Lawngltai, 11 in Siaha, 20 in Saitual and 27 in Khawzawl district, he said.

    Of the 11 districts, four districts – Lunglei, Kolasib, Mamit and Hnahthial are yet to submit list of COVID-19 free villages where re-opening of school can be allowed, according to Lalrinchhana.

    He said the schools, which have been permitted to re-open, are mostly located in remote rural villages where internet connectivity is very poor.

    The re-opening of school in such villages has immensely helped students, who could not get good internet access, he said.

    Online classes are still going on for schools in COVID-19 areas, he said.

    So far, no student has been infected with COVID-19 in such villages where schools were re-opened, he said.

    Unlike previous years, the new academic session (for 2021-2022) was delayed by a month due to COVID-19 and the academic calendar commenced from May.

    Schools and other educational institutions have been closed for about 15 months starting from March last year due to the spread of COVID-19.

    Following the dip in COVID-19 cases from around November last year, schools were reopened for certain classes on January 22 this year but have been shut again since April with the onset of the second wave of COVID-19.

  • COVID-19 vaccination: For safe reopening of schools, Centre looks to private hospitals

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Amid a debate to reopen the schools across India, the Union health ministry has sought the support of private hospitals in vaccinating teachers free of cost under the CSR initiative.

    There are about 75 lakh school teachers — in both government and private schools — of which less than 20 % are vaccinated, as per the estimates.

    For vaccinating them, The New Indian Express has learnt, private hospitals were urged to seek funding support from MNCs and other companies.

    Sources said that a meeting between health ministry officials and representatives of private hospitals took place last week in which the government sought the support of corporates ahead of issuing guidelines on cautious reopening of schools. 

    “Once the private hospitals start offering this service, this initiative will also be widely publicised to get more teachers to avail the vaccine free at vaccination centres,” said a ministry official. 

    “Following this suggestion, we have already written to some companies such as Amazon to help hospitals across India and are writing to several others,” said Girdhar J Gyani, DG, Association of Healthcare Providers of India.

    “This push will also accelerate vaccinations at smaller hospitals in tier 2 and 3 towns.” 

    In a July 30 circular, the Corporate Affairs ministry had said that funds spent on Covid vaccination for individuals other than employees and their families will be considered as CSR expenditure.

    In March, it had said that spending on Covid would be considered as a CSR activity.

    While some states such as Bihar, MP, UP and Odisha have either opened or are planning to open the schools for secondary and senior secondary level schools on a rotation basis, they are completely shut in most states since the beginning of the pandemic in March, 2020. 

    Last month, top officials, including ICMR director general Balaram Bhargava and AIIMS- Delhi director Randeep Guleria, had suggested that primary schools can be opened first in districts reporting less than 5 % Covid positivity rates.

    It was, however, recommended that full vaccination of teachers and all support staff should be ensured before classes commence in offline mode. 

  • Schools to reopen in Uttar Pradesh for classes 9-12 from August 16 with 50 per cent attendance

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: Schools in Uttar Pradesh will resume classes 9 to 12 from August 16, but with 50 per cent attendance, according to an order issued by the state government on Monday.

    Apart from this, instructions have also been issued for commencement of classes in higher educational institutes from September 1, the UP government said in a statement.

    “Students of high (class 9 and 10) and intermediate (class 11 and 12) schools will participate in the 75th Independence Day celebrations on August 15.

    And on August 16, teaching-learning will commence in the schools with half capacity, while adhering to the COVID-19 protocol,” Additional Chief Secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal told PTI According to the UP government statement, the chief minister has instructed officials to begin preparations for commencement of new session of all educational institutes in view of the controlled situation of the coronavirus in the state.

    The results of Classes 10 and 12 boards have been declared, and admission for the under-graduate classes should start from August 5, the chief minister was quoted as saying.

    In the educational institutes, provisions of sanitiser, infra-red thermometers and masks have to be made, while social distancing and COVID-19 protocol have to be maintained, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said.

    With the resumption of the educational institutes, it would be appropriate to organise special vaccination camps for students above the age of 18 years.

    The health department should make all the necessary arrangements in this regard, he said.