Govt to take parents on board before reopening junior schools

As the festival season has almost come to an end with the celebration of Deepawali on Thursday, the Jammu and Kashmir Government may take a final call on reopening schools including the junior wing but only after taking parents on board and monitoring the Covid pandemic situation.

“Life has gradually limped back to normalcy and the government is closely monitoring the situation but the final decision on resuming junior classes will be taken by the end of this month,” official sources said.

However, they said that the Director School Education and the Commissioner Secretary, Education, will also be taking the parents on board before taking a final call in this matter.

“Only if the department receives a positive response, then a decision can be taken on opening of schools,” they said.

Keeping the prevailing COVID situation in mind, there has been a slight increase in the cases of infection in the last few weeks and the government is closely monitoring the situation, said an official adding, “if the third wave hit Jammu and Kashmir, all preparations and arrangements are in place to deal with it and all district administrations are working in coordination with the health department on COVID infections.”

“The Deputy Commissioners have been asked to submit weekly reports of the Corona situation in their respective districts and based on the report submitted, the State Executive Committee on Disaster Management headed by the Chief Secretary, will preside over a meeting every week with all the concerned officers to review the situation before taking rest of the decisions,” they added.

“All the District Education Officers have submitted data regarding the current scenario in their respective areas and the decision on reopening of schools in junior wing will be taken on that basis,” one of the officials of the Education Department here said.

“The children are yet not vaccinated because the Central government has to give final approval on children vaccination likely by next year and this is one of the biggest hurdles in taking the decision of reopening schools of junior wings,” he added.

“Children at this stage are at a very high risk of Corona infection and any decision taken will be finalised keeping all ifs and buts into consideration,” they said.

So far, Jammu and Kashmir have performed well in fighting COVID while weekly review is being taken every month by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to fight the pandemic and call on reopening of schools may be taken in a phased manner if cases witness dip in coming days.

“The classes of 10th and 12th standard are already functional with 50 percent attendance and students are being made aware of Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB) to prevent them from getting infected,” they said and added that picture on Third Wave will be cleared by the end of this month and thereafter, decision on reopening of junior schools can be taken.