School reopening news: These states to reopen their educational institutions from today, Details here

| Updated: Monday, August 2, 2021, 11:07 [IST]

New Delhi, Aug 02: As India is recovering from the second wave of Covid-19 and the number of Covid cases is coming down, many states have decided to reopen the schools for students either totally or for selected classes. States like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh already started the opening up of schools in a phased manner.

Punjab

Schools in Punjab started conducting physical classes right from pre-primary levels from Monday with relaxations in COVID19 restrictions.

The government had already allowed reopening of schools for classes 10 to 12 from July 26.

On Saturday, the state government had allowed reopening of schools for all classes from August 2 as it further relaxed Covid restrictions in the wake of declining cases. "Following the approval of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in view of the present Covid situation, the Education Department is all set to reopen schools for all classes from August 2 onwards," said Singla in an official statement here. The minister said the timing of schools will remain the same which is from 8 am to 2 pm. Parents will have to provide written consent before sending their wards to schools, he said. Singla said the reopening of schools would play an important role to assess the learning of students during the pandemic as the teachers were able to contact the students through virtual classes only.

Chattisgarh

Chhattisgarh will reopen government and private schools for classes 10 and 12 with 50 per cent attendance from today with 50% attendance, for which the prerequisite is that the COVID-19 positivity rate of the district concerned should be 1% for last seven days.

Uttarakhand

Schools in Uttarakhand will reopen for Classes 9 to 12 on August 2 and for Classes 6 to 8 on August 16, officials said on Saturday. An order to this effect was issued by the state government saying it will apply to all boarding, day boarding government and private schools.

All schools have been asked to sanitise their premises thoroughly and give entry to students only after their thermal screening and hand sanitising at the gates.

Students should not be forced to attend the classes physically as the option of online attendance will also be available to them, the order said. Students who come to school to attend their classes must have the consent of their parents or guardians for doing so, it added.