Kerala: Guidelines to re-open schools amid COVID to be issued by Oct 5

Kerala government is all set to re-open the schools after several months of a halt due to the Coronavirus pandemic. CM Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government will be issuing detailed guidelines by October 5, Tuesday on the resumption of the physical classes scheduled for November 1.

The Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty said that the detailed guidelines for the resumption of schools will be launched within the coming week, as the state government is planning to keep children safe amid the ongoing spread of the virus in the state. He said the precautionary guidelines were decided by the government officials after series of meetings that had concluded today. He also added that the meetings were held with all the stakeholders regarding the decision of resumption of physical classes.

Guidelines to re-open schools will be launched by Tuesday, Oct 5

Talking to the media, Sivankutty said, "A series of meetings that were conducted with District Educational Officer (DEO) and Assistant Educational Officer (AEO) concluded today. Matters related to teacher training and the conditions for conducting classes according to the Covid norms were discussed." Extensive preparations are being done amid the scare of the COVID third wave, which is speculated to hit the children.

The guidelines will be launched on Tuesday and all the schools and staff members will be instructed to abide by the guidelines strictly, the minister emphasised. Education Minister informed that in the meeting, the issue of lack of infrastructure facilities in some schools have also come up, now the government is planning to accommodate students of sich schools in other nearby schools within stipulated days of school re-opening. 

"Some schools have a lack of infrastructure facilities, so the government is planning to accommodate those students in nearby schools within the stipulated day of schools reopening so that they can follow all the Covid-19 guidelines," he added, as reported by ANI. 

The Kerala government had already announced that schools for Classes 1 to 7 and 10 and 12 would start on November 1 with fully vaccinated staff. The government authorised fully vaccinated students to attend normal sessions in colleges and training institutes beginning October 18 under updated COVID-19 guidelines released on Saturday. Only completely vaccinated teachers and other staff members will be permitted.

COVID Situation

As the country continues to fight the deadly Coronavirus infections, India on Sunday, October 3, has reported 22,842 fresh COVID cases with 25,930 recoveries and 244 deaths in the past 24 hours. According to Union Health Ministry data, out of the total infections, the active cases account for 0.80 per cent, the lowest since March 2020. Currently, there are 2,70,557 active cases in the county. Meanwhile, Kerala has recorded 13,217 COVID cases and 121 deaths yesterday. To date, 3,30,94,529 patients have recovered from COVID-19 as India’s recovery rate stands at 97.87 per cent. 

(With inputs from ANI)

(Image: ANI)