Ahmedabad: The state government will make a decision about the reopening of the school for class 6 to 8 next week.
“The decision on the reopening of the school for grade 6 to 8 students will be taken after August 15,” said Minister of State Education Bhupendrasinh Chudasama on Wednesday.
The state government had previously planned to decide on August 9, but after the recent incident in Punjab, where the school children were infected with Covid-19 after the reopening of the school earlier this month, the state government said careful sources.
Last week, around 20 students in two schools in Ludhiana were tested positive for Covid-19 after that the school was told to close for two weeks.
“We asked the state government to allow the reopening of schools for grades 6 to 8 about 15 days ago, when the number of cases was very low.
The idea is that students can learn directly in the classroom before the third wave might be turned off,” Bhaskar Patel, President of the Gujarat state school management association.
With the low Covid-19 case number in the state, schools and colleges recently opened in staggering ways.
Schools are permitted to hold in-people for class 9 to 12 with 50% student presence.
Not compulsory and school presence is to get permission from parents in writing to enable children to attend classes.
In March this year, at least 12 students in a positive tested letter for Covid-19 after the school was allowed to return after the nine-month gap.
They were immediately closed together with other educational institutions as Covid case numbers up.
The state government recently decided to test RT-PCR in schools and colleges to check the spread of Covid-19.
The State Health Department has taken a three-branch approach called ‘Test-Track-Treatment’ to ensure cases detected early and patients get timely care.
Without vaccines available for school children, their health monitoring is the main problem.