Teaching, non-teaching staff to attend schools from October 12 in Himachal

Bhanu P Lohumi
Tribune News Service
Shimla, October 9

All teaching and non-teaching staff will attend schools from October 12 after nearly seven months but the government is yet to take a decision regarding opening schools.

The Education Minister had recently said that the government was in no hurry to open the schools in view of the increasing cases of Covid-19. He had hinted that there was little chances of calling students of Class I to VIII, as 68 per cent of the parents had expressed their opinions against opening the schools.

“Though regular classes will not be held in schools for the time being, the entire teaching and other staff in all government educational institutions has been directed to come to their places of duty everyday from October 12,” said Joint Secretary, Higher Education, Ved Prakash, who issued the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for opening the institutions.

All educational institutions have been directed to prepare institution-based micro plans to be implemented by October 17.

All government educational institutions have been directed to hold e-parent teacher meeting (PTM) between October 15 and 17 to share the SOPs and precautionary measures to be adopted in view of the pandemic.

“Students achievements in the first term online exams and the Har Ghar Pathshala indicatives such as the weekly quiz and remedial teaching materials will also be shared with the parents,” the SOPs read.

The earlier orders regarding the option to the students of Class IX to XII to visit schools with mandatory permission from their parents will remain effective and the online teaching and learning process through the Har Ghar Pathshala will continue as usual.

The principals and heads of the educational institutions have been directed to ensure the delivery of offline study material to the students, who are unable to join online classes or the Har Ghar Pathshala or through Doordarshan.

The teachers will prepare teaching modules and hone their skills in information and communication technologies labs and also provide learning material to left-out students at their homes.

With schools remaining closed for nearly seven months, the academic year 2020 in the winter-closing institutions has been consumed by the pandemic and tentative plans to open secondary classes in September or October have been thwarted by a spurt in Covid-19 cases.