Order issued to reopen schools, colleges
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, November 09 2021: The state government has-announced that in view of the Covid-19 positive cases remaining considerably low for the past few months and conditional relaxation of public activities in the state, decision has been taken to allow re-opening of schools, colleges and other educational institutes from November 10 for classes IX and above.

In an office memo issued on Tuesday, commissioner (Education-S) M Harekrishna notified that re-opening of the educational institutions will be subject to observance of SOP/guidelines issued by Health Department.

Over and above the Standard Operating procedure (SOP) that needs to be observed for safety of students, teachers and all stakeholders, attendance of students shall not be enforced and will be purely based on parental consent.

Teaching hours will be limited to three-four hours for both online and physical classes and no cultural or sports events will be permitted.

However, school/college/institute specific arrangement with regard to the compliance of SOP has to be settled at the level of the head of the school/college/institute, it stated.

The memorandum continued that wearing of face cover/masks by the students, teachers, staff and all stakeholders will be mandatory along with regular handwashing and following the Covid safety guidelines issued by the Health Department from time to time.

Vaccination of staff and students is encouraged and all the non-vaccinated teaching and non-teaching staff including those who got only 1st dose of vaccination will be Covid-19 RTPCR tested every 20 days and they should submit the report to the head of the institutions.

Deputy commissioners of all districts will constitute a District Level Task Force Committee with the deputy commissioner concerned as chairman to monitor the resumption and safe operations of all educational institutions in the district and the zonal education officer in the district, principals of colleges, head of institutes as member secretary along with district chief medical officer and community leaders as members.

The District Level Task Force Committee will be responsible for assessment of Covid-19 situation, ensuring enforcement of the SOP and feasibility of school/college/institute reopening, it directed.

The memo also instructed that the schools/college/other educational institutions will have to provide isolation facilities and tie up with the nearest health centre/joint director of Health Services, in caseof emergency and related health check-up.

In order to maintain proper social distancing of 6 feet between two benches, all educational institutes will permit only a specific number of students in a class at any given time and to ensure this, all educational institutes can conduct classes on rotational basis or staggered manner, wherever considered necessary, it added.

The memo further mentioned that it will be the responsibility of all the school authority / college / institutes to ensure that the learning gap of the students is duly compensated as per guidelines issued by the government from time to time.

In the event of sickness of the student or a family member, the student is advised to stay at home.

Teachers, parents and other stakeholders are advised to download Aarogya Setu App, it also informed.

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