Circular making parents' consent mandatory for students to attend offline classes withdrawn by Goa govt

Panaji, Mar 1: Following opposition from parents, the Goa government on Tuesday has withdrawn a circular making parents' consent mandatory for children to attend classes in the offline mode.

In the latest circular, State Education Director Bhushan Savaikar requested heads of government, government aided, unaided pre-primary, primary, secondary, higher secondary and special schools to not insist on parents' consent for students to physically attend classes.

The new circular has come days after parents raised objections to the consent forms, which institutions were getting signed from them. All educational institutions have begun physical classes from last week, after the number of COVID-19 cases dropped drastically in the coastal state. Savaikar said that the circular withdrawing the requirement of consent from parents has been issued with the approval of the competent authority.

Schools in Goa reopened for students of all classes on February 21 after the Covid-19 cases had dropped in the state.

Goa on Monday reported 18 new cases of coronavirus that took the tally of infections to 2,45,019, leaving the state with 271 active cases.

Meanwhile, India added 6,915 new coronavirus cases, taking the total tally of COVID-19 infections to 4,29,24,130, while the active cases further declined to 92,472 according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday. The death toll climbed to 5,14,023 with 180 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The active cases comprise 0.22 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 98.59 per cent, the ministry said.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.77 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.1 per cent, according to the ministry.