Education: Bihar issues guidelines for reopening of schools, colleges at 50 percent capacity

Patna: The Education Department of Bihar has issued guidelines for reopening colleges and schools from 4 January, 2021.  As per the new guidelines – all institutions will have to follow the Covid-19 protocol and 50 percent students will be allowed in the class.

The principal secretary of the education department Sanjay Kumar said that “The decision to reopen remaining classes will be taken after a review meeting on 18 January, 2021.” All educational institutions were shut since March 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As per the guidelines – all parents will have to fill up the consent form who wants to send their child to attend the class and online classes from home will be allowed. In the consent form – students will have to submit a self-declaration form detailing their travel history and medical condition.

The SOPs of the Government mandated that “All School buses and hostels will have to be sanitized once before reopen of schools and twice a day after reopening. All educational institutions have been directed to constitute different teams to look after sanitisation, cleanliness and social distancing. The educational institutions will have to avoid organising functions besides ensuring the availability of medical staff for any emergency.”

The president of Private Schools and Children Welfare Association Shamael Ahmed welcomed the decision of the government and said “The government should rethink its decision and allow classes from 8th onwards to reopen, so that confidence is built among the students and parents. There are just 500-600 schools that have classes 9 to 12 and are allowed to open.”

_Vinayak