Physical classes to resume in Odisha primary schools from January 3

Bhubaneswar, Dec 28: The Odisha government Tuesday announced that physical classes would resume for students of classes 1 to 5 from January 3 next.

The announcement was made by School and Mass Education minister S R Dash barely a few hours after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik directed officials to make preparations on war-footing to deal with a possible third wave of COVID-19 following the detection of at least eight cases of Omicron variant in the state.

Dash told reporters that as per the directions of the chief minister, physical mode of teaching will be resumed in about 27,000 schools in the state from January 3, 2022.

Pointing out that online classes will also continue, he said the pupils can attend offline classes in consultation with their parents or guardians. However, in schools where the summative exam for class 10 students has been scheduled, the on-campus classes will resume from January 10, 2022, he said.

In those schools, the Matric summative assessment-1 is scheduled to be held between January 5 and 8. Mentioning that the standard operating procedure (SOP) issued for classes 6 to 12 has to be followed by all the primary schools, the minister said that classes for 1 to 5 will be held between 9 am and 12 noon, without any break.

Dash said that cooked mid-day meal will not be served to students. “They will be given dry ration,” he said.