Class X students in Sonepat village attend school after 165 days

Tribune News Service

Panipat, September 14

As many as 40 students of Government High School at Bazidpur Saboli village of Sonepat district on Monday attended their classes after a gap of 165 days amid Covid pandemic.

The district education department on Monday reopened the school at Bazidpur Saboli on a trial basis for two days, with standard operating procedures (SOPs). The classes have been organised in the verandah of the school by maintaining the proper social distancing.

The students have been divided into separate colours and two balloons — Green and Blue colours have been invited to attend the school today with their parents’ consent, said Chand Kishor, Headmaster of the school.

Name slips of students have been pasted on every bench as per the scheduled sitting plan and masks according to their colours have been provided to the students and also asked them to bring their own food and water bottles as no sharing was allowed, he said.

The students were asked not to interact with each other and teachers had to go to the students’ seat to check the notebooks, he added.

The timing for the girls and boys students is 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 has been appointed to check the temperature of the students with a thermal scanner before they enter the school in the morning, he said. Four subject classes including maths, science, English and Hindi have been scheduled for students, the Headmaster added.

"We have also maintained an isolation room in the school so that if any student feels any problem then he/she could be isolated immediately", he said. Besides, an automatic sanitiser machine has been kept in the school to enable the students to sanitise their hands without touching anything.

The students seemed excited to be back in the classrooms during this trial period. Anshu, a Class X student, thanked the state government for opening her school. "We have been facing a lot of problems in the online classes but now we can directly attend the classes", she added.

Satpal Singh, Sarpanch, Saboli, said, "it was a matter of honour for our village that the state government has chosen our village school. We along with the school staff have managed all the facilities in the school as per the Covid protocol".

Jogender Singh, District Education Officer (DEO) also visited the school to take stock of the situation. “The Government High School at Wazidpur Saboli has been opened for two days on a trial basis. All norms have been followed at the school,” the DEO maintained.