Schools will reopen after August 2020: HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal

Schools and colleges in India are likely to resume classes in August, HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has indicated. In an interview with BBC News Hindi, the union minister said that results of examinations would be declared by August 15. Only after that schools will be opened, he said in the interview.

With the educational institution closed due to the Covid-19 lockdown since mid-March, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal finally revealed in an interview that the schools would reopen after August.

HRD Minister Ramesh Nishank Pokhriyal in a June 3 interview revealed that schools and colleges which have remained closed since around March 16 will reopen after August 2020. Around 33 crore students have been waiting for school reopening news to dispel their doubts.

According to the report in late May, it was thought that schools and colleges with 30% attendance in July and younger students would remain at home until class 8.

It also stated that Green and Orange zones would reopen their educational institutes first and that to maintain social distancing norms and a smaller attendance, school would take place in two shifts.

But the Coronavirus scene in India wasn’t stable and in a week, the ministry came out with an official statement within a week that stated that no decision of this sort had been taken yet.

HRD Minister says schools to reopen after August

After weeks of confusion from students, teachers and parents, HRD Minister Ramesh Nishank Pokhriyal in an interview finally revealed that schools and colleges would be reopened after August 2020, possibly even after August 15, 2020.

"We are trying to get declared all the results from the examinations this session by August 15," said the HRD Minister.

"This means those exams which have already taken place before and those which are taking place now," Pokhriyal added in the interview.

The anchor asks again if that meant that schools and colleges would re-open after August, to which the HRD minister replied with an enthusiastic "absolutely".

While CBSE board exams would be held from July 1 to July 15, ICSE/ISC exams will begin from July 1 till July 12.

NEET and JEE are also being held in July while NEET will be on 26 July, JEE will be from 18 July to 23 July.

UGC, NCERT guidelines to be followed for safety when schools reopen

Safety guidelines are a must for education institutions to resume work again in the Covid-19 circumstances.

Thus, while UGC was deciding on safety guidelines for reopening colleges and universities, NCERT was doing the same work for schools. 

The guidelines, which would be different in all three cases, will help students and teachers ensure safety while schools reopen amidst a coronavirus pandemic.

As per reports, teachers would need to wear masks and gloves, thermal scanners would be installed in schools, only two students would sit on three-seaters, CCTVs would observe if social distancing rules are being followed.

Moreover, the safety guidelines will be printed and installed at multiple locations in each school and the SDMs and DMs of the respective region will necessarily fix the covid-19 security guidelines.

It remains to be seen what the updated guidelines would be if schools reopen after August.

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