Sonepat village school reopens after 165 days

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, September 14

As many as 40 students of Class X of Government High School at Bazidpur Saboli village of Sonepat district today attended classes after 165 days amid Covid pandemic.

The District Education Department reopened the school on a trial basis for two days with standard operating procedures. The classes have been organised in the verandah of the school by maintaining proper social distancing.

Following norms

The name slips of students have been pasted on every bench as per the seating plan and they’ve been given masks… Their shoes are sanitised at the entry gate and a teacher has been appointed to check their temperature. — Chand Kishor, school headmaster

“The students have been divided into two balloons. Green and blue colours have been invited to attend the school today with their parents’ consent,” said school headmaster Chand Kishor.

The name slips of students have been pasted on every bench as per the scheduled sitting plan and they have been provided with masks according to their colours. “They have also been asked to bring their own food and water bottles as no sharing is allowed,” he said.

He said the students did not even need to interact with each other and teachers would go to their seats to check their copies.

“The timing for girls and boys has been scheduled in the gap of 15 minutes so that social distancing can be maintained properly at the entry gate,” he said.

The shoes of the students were sanitised at the entry gate and a teacher had been appointed to check their temperature with thermal scanner before they entered the school in the morning. To begin with, classes for four subjects — maths, science, English and Hindi — have been started.

“We have also maintained an isolation room in the school so that if any student feels any problem, he/she can be isolated. Besides, an automatic sanitiser machine has been kept so that students can sanitise their hands without touching anything,” Kishor added.

Anshu, a Class 10 student, thanked the government for opening the school. “We have been facing a lot of problems in online classes but now we can directly attend the classes,” she said.

Saboli sarpanch Satpal Singh said it was a matter of honour for the village as the state government chose the school in their village. “We along with the school staff have managed all the facilities in the school as per the Covid protocol,” he said.

District Education Officer Jogender Singh also visited the school to take note of the situation. “The school has been opened for two days on a trial basis. All norms have been followed,” he said.