The centre has framed a plan to reopen schools and other educational institutions in a phase-wise manner between September 1 and November 14. The plan have been discussed by the group of secretaries attached to the Group of Ministers on Covid-19 management, headed by health minister Harsh Vardhan.
The decision is likely to be notified as part of the final unlock guidelines to be issued by the end of August 31. Sources said the final decision would be left to the state governments on how and when to bring back students to the classrooms. Broad standard operating procedures (SOPs) would be issued for schools and educational institutions.
The guidelines, which have given by the ministry of human resource development and the health ministry, recommend the opening of schools and running them in a phased manner. For the first 15 days, students of classes 10 to 12 would be asked to attend school. Different sections of a class would get different days to attend their school. For instance, in a school, if a particular class has four sections, half the students of sections A and C would come on particular days and the remaining on the other days.
The number of hours would be restricted from 5-6 to 2-3 hours of physical attendance. All schools are likely to run in shifts from 8 to 11 am and 12 to 3 pm with a one-hour break in between for sanitisation. The schools would be advised to run on 33 percent capacity of teaching staff and students.
The discussions within the group of secretaries reveal that the government is not in favour of calling pre-primary or primary school students to school and continue with online classes. After the introduction of physical classes for Class 10 to 12, the schools would be advised to start physical schooling with restricted hours for Class 6 to 9. If a school has multiple wings, the classes would be spread out and the schools would be advised to use the primary section to spread out senior students.
Source: The Economic Times
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