Maharashtra school reopening date announced

Image credit: twitter.com/ANI

Maharashtra school reopening news: Schools will reopen across Maharashtra on October 4, the state’s School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad has said. In rural areas, classes will resume for Classes 5 to 12 and in Urban areas, schools will reopen for Classes 8 to 12, the minister said.

“All the schools in rural areas will resume physical classes for standards 5th to 12th,” Ms Gaikwad said.

Until now, Maharashtra schools were conducting physical classes only in those areas which were reporting relatively fewer COVID-19 cases.
Physical classes would not resume yet for Classes 1 to 7 in urban areas and standards Classes 1 to 4 in rural areas.

“Though schools will reopen in the entire state, there is no compulsion for students to attend physical classes. Consent of parents will be necessary if they want to attend,” the minister added.

As per a survey conducted by the school education department, more than 70 per cent parents favoured reopening of schools, Ms Gaikwad said.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has given approval for reopening schools in the state, the ministry said, according to ANI.

The Maharashtra government had earlier decided to resume physical teaching-learning from August 17 and released SOP for it. But the state’s task force on COVID-19 opposed the decision.

Ms Gaikwad had later said it is up to local officials to decide, taking into consideration the COVID-19 situation in an area, whether physical classes should resume at schools or not.

“There is no compulsion (on the state government’s part) to reopen schools. The COVID task force members were not aware of our Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). There will be a meeting again. Our (education department’s) secretary is studying the SOP of the task force,” Ms Gaikwad had said.

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis alleged that there was no coordination between the task force, education minister Gaikwad and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on the issue, creating confusion.