“How are you, my girls?”
That was my question to a group of five vivacious students of Class XI I bumped into on my way back home from our School-1 education project last week. Each one of them was glowing with happiness. Joyously they replied, “Maám, we are coming back from our formal school and we are so delighted to attend the physical classes thrice a week now”, said Ananya, the Head of Education in Calcutta Rescue
Schools in Kolkata and West Bengal reopened from Friday February 12 amid strict adherence to the COVID-19 protocol mandated by the Centre and the State Governments.
With staggered and shorter class hours, frequent sanitisation, the classes only resumed for 9th to 12th standard students, in view of their board exams though the attendance is not mandatory for the students and all schools collected written consent letters from the parents that they are sending their wards to the formal schools willingly.
Schools and colleges have remained shut since March 2020 in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic which has claimed more than 1.5 lakh lives so far. The government of India had allowed schools to reopen from October 15. However, the decision was left to state governments to decide as to when they would resume physical classes. The government of West Bengal gave the final call at the beginning of February.
The Ministry of Education gave strictly instructed schools to –
- Install sanitiser kiosks, thermal scanners, and use disinfectants that will be sprayed in-between batches.
- Class hours will be reduced.
- Students of all the mentioned classes will not be called together at the same time like before.
- In laboratories, only 10 students will be allowed at a time under the supervision of the school staff.
- Staff will be deployed to check temperatures and to ensure social distancing in the classrooms.
- Medical facilities will remain on standby in schools for any eventuality and
- schools will hold orientation programmes and put up posters and notices detailing the Covid-19 guidelines.
