Assam reopens schools on odd-even system

Assam will reopen on Monday after more than seven months with strict COVID-19 guidelines, officials said on Saturday. Only students from Classes 6th to 12th will be allowed to attend and a Standard Operating Procedure or SOP has been issued that will need to be followed, according to the officials of the Education Department.

To minimise the risk, schools will follow an odd-even system. Students in Classes 6, 8 and 12 will attend school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while the other three days are reserved for Classes 7, 9 and 11.

“All the students would not come into the schools at a time and they would attend the schools in different batches in morning and afternoon shift. Fixation of first batch and second batch of students would be done by the head of the institution,” the government said in a news release.

“The first batch of students would come at 8 a.m. and stay up to 12 noon and the second batch of students would come at 12.30 p.m. and stay up to 3.30 p.m.” it added.

The SOP has asked the school authorities to follow social distancing and other precautionary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The SOP also includes a staggered timetable for general colleges, engineering colleges, polytechnic institutions and IITs and the final decision will be taken by the college authority.

Online education will continue for students who prefer to attend online classes rather than physically attend school.

The SOP said that all hostel facilities in schools and colleges will remain suspended until further orders.

It said that the educational institutions shall have to be sanitised on every weekend, preferably every Sunday.

The teaching and non-teaching staff of all educational institutions and cooks and helpers engaged in preparing Mid-day Meals among the students should be medically tested for COVID-19 after every 30 days and people with COVID-19 symptoms should be tested immediately.

Assam has reported 2.06 lakh coronavirus cases including 930 deaths till Saturday.