The Maharashtra government has decided to reopen schools in those areas of the state that are currently free of COVID-19 cases.
The government order said that offline classes will start from next week in schools in Covid-free zones, which have not reported a single case of Covid-19 within the last month.
Maharashtra’s School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad said on Twitter, “Taking a co-educational approach to reach out to the last strata of the state has become the need of the hour” (Translated from Marathi). Gaikwad shared the government order on Twitter.
“As a first step, villages which do not have COVID-19 cases for more than a month and where the Gram Panchayat with the consent of the parents/guardians takes a pledge to adopt COVID-appropriate behavior, may be assigned classes 8 to 12. Classes will be allowed to reopen for Yuli 15,” he added.
The government has mandated the formation of an eight-member committee consisting of local collectors, school principals and health officials to decide on Covid-free zones. In rural areas, the committee will be headed by the head of the village panchayat areas.
A committee will also be formed at the district level and permission will have to be taken from the committee before reopening the schools.
It will be the responsibility of the village sarpanch to ensure that all protocols are implemented as required. Operations will be overseen by the Chief Executive Officer of the local Zilla Parishad, who will conduct regular reviews.
Schools will need to ensure that only 20 students are seated in a classroom to ensure proper social distancing is followed.
In addition, teachers and staff will be required to get vaccinated before schools reopen.
Gaikwad said, “Corona vaccination of all the teachers and non-teaching staff of the respective schools should be done as a priority before the school starts.”
He further said, “It is mandatory for everyone to strictly follow the corona prevention rules laid down by the state government before starting the school. Any negligence will not be tolerated in view of the possibility of a third wave.”
On Wednesday, 9,558 new cases of Kovid-19 were reported in Maharashtra and 147 people died, taking the total number of infected to 61,22,893 and the death toll to 1,23,857.
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