Many skip classes as schools partially reopen in Assam

With masks on their faces, students across Assam sat at least two metres away from each other in their classes on Monday as the state government partially reopened schools with strict Ccovid-19 safety protocols in place.

Officials told DH that nearly half of the students did not attend the classes on Monday mainly due to fear of Covid-19 as there was no let-up in positive cases and deaths due to the virus even on Monday.

Eighteen persons died across Assam on Sunday due to coronavirus, taking the death toll to 562. The state also reported 1,227 fresh positive cases on Sunday, increasing the total number of cases to 1,56, 680, of which 30,575 were active cases.

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The state education department had issued a standard operating procedure for the re-opening of schools only for students of classes 9 to 12 with 50% of teachers. A no objection and written undertaking from parents was made compulsory for students to attend the classes. But sources said most parents did not want their students to attend classes till a vaccine to defeat coronavirus was ready.

Private schools, however, did not resume their classes.

The state decided to resume the classes as online classes were not being conducted regularly in government schools. "Private schools are by and large conducting the online classes but the same is not going on the way they should be due to various constraints, including lack of smartphones or internet connectivity with the students or parents. So it was decided to partially resume the classes with all possible Covid-19 safety measures in place," said an official.

The state education department had earlier extended the current academic year by two months, from January to March but things were going beyond control as the positive cases did not subside.

The state had earlier made Covid-19 tests mandatory for all teachers.