Amidst fears of a second wave of Covid-19 spreading across different parts of the country, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to go slow on reopening of schools for primary and upper primary sections in the state.
According to the original schedule, the state government, which reopened schools for Class 9 and 10 from November 2 after a gap of seven months, was supposed to allow students of Class 6, 7 and 8 from Monday.
However, after seeing the poor response for students of Class 9 and 10 and reluctance of parents to send their children to schools, the government changed the schedule and threw open the schools only for Class 8 students from Monday.
For Classes 6 and 7, the government has tentatively decided to reopen schools on December 14, state minister for education Adimulapu Suresh said.
Similarly, the primary schools for Classes 1 to 5 are supposed to be open from December 14 but now, the government has rescheduled them to the third week of January. “We shall take a call on reopening of primary schools after the Sankranti festival, which falls on January 15, after assessing the situation in December,” the minister said.
Despite all the precautions being taken by the school education department to prevent the spread of Covid-19 such as conducting of classes only till afternoon and only on alternate days, the parents are not so keen on sending their children to schools.
{{/usCountry}}Despite all the precautions being taken by the school education department to prevent the spread of Covid-19 such as conducting of classes only till afternoon and only on alternate days, the parents are not so keen on sending their children to schools.
{{/usCountry}}According to official figures from the school education department, only around 40-45 per cent of students are attending classes. On Monday, 46.28 per cent of Class 10 students and 41.61 per cent of Class 9 students attended the school.
“However, the percentage of students belonging to Class 8, which was thrown open on Monday, was very encouraging. Out of 5,70,742 students of Class 8, as many as 3,96,809 students attended the classes, which accounts for 69.72 per cent. In Guntur district, the attendance was as high as 82.34 per cent,” the minister said.
He said the health department authorities have been regularly conducting tests for Covid-19 on random basis. So far, 1.29 lakh teachers were tested for Covid-19 since the reopening of schools on November 2 and of them, only 1,023 tested positive.
Similarly, 2.09 lakh students were tested and of then only 458 students tested positive for Covid-19. “The positivity rate among students and teachers put together is less than 0.3 per cent and so, there is no need for any panic or worry,” the minister said.
Suresh said all steps are being taken to run the classes as per health protocol. “As temperatures are gradually decreasing during the winter, directions have been given to the officials to conduct classes from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm,” the minister added.