After a gap of 18 months of Covid-19 triggered lockdown, middle, secondary and higher secondary schools will finally reopen in Maharashtra from October 4, with some restrictions.
After getting a go-ahead from Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, State Education Minister Prof. Varsha Gaikwad announced formally that the schools for standard 5 to 12 in rural areas and for standard 8 to 12 in urban areas will reopen on October 4.
Announcing the re-opening of schools, Prof Gaiwad tweeted: “Based on detailed deliberations with the paediatric task force, all stakeholders & guidance of @CMOMaharashtra, SOPs for school reopenings have been further strengthened. Schools can restart physical classes for Std 5-12th in rural areas & Std 8-12th in urban areas from October 4”.
Prof Gaikwad said that her Ministry had on August 10 released a set of Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs) relating to health, cleanliness and safety to be followed ahead of the reopening of the schools and that some more SOPs were being issued.
“For the safety of the staff & students, vaccination has been made compulsory for teachers/staff. We have also constituted a task force headed by the collector/commissioner to monitor the resumption and safe operations of schools,” Prof. Gaikwad tweeted.
In the important measure suggested in the SOP, the school administration has been asked to prepare an action plan on what each school has to do in the event of students, teachers and non-teaching employees falling sick. If the schools were to be closed down, what measures will be taken to ensure that the education goes without interruptions.
Among other things, the SOP has suggested that a “Back-to-School” campaign be launched by the school establishments to draw students back to schools, that school create health infrastructure giving facilities like providing water to students to wash their hands, calibrated contactless infrared digital thermometers and sanitisers in schools in both urban and rural areas.
The SOP has also recommended that vehicle arrangements be made to ferry students safely to schools and back to their homes.
As a precautionary measure, the SOP has made it mandatory for teachers and non-teaching staff in schools to undergo Covid-19 tests 48 hours prior to the start of schools and submit the test reports to the school establishments. Those testing positive may join their duty after completing their quarantining period. The period during which the affected teaching and non-teaching staff recovering from Covid-19 may be treated as “sick leave” by their establishments.
Those testing negative would have to follow all the prescribed guidelines and in the event of any of them showing symptoms of Covid-19, they would have to undergo the necessary Covid-19 tests immediately.