GUWAHATI, Oct 27 - Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today held a meeting with officials of the State education and health departments at Janata Bhawan here on reopening of schools, which have been closed for more than seven months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sonowal directed the education department to take utmost care to strictly adhere to the COVID-19 protocols while reopening the schools, and stressed on the need to start the classes early in the morning, while maintaining a gap between classroom timings of two groups of students and keeping the toilets clean.
He also issued instructions to the department to use audiovisual tools, storytelling and other attractive methods extensively in the first month to get the students back in the mould of formal education. Principal Secretary of the education department B Kalyan Chakravarti apprised the Chief Minister of the SOP prepared by the Higher Education Department. According to the SOP, formal classes will start from November 2 for the students of class VI and above. Students of standards VI, VII, IX and XII will have classroom teachings on Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week, while those from standards VIII, X and XI will have classes on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Likewise, the students of first, third and fifth semester degree will have classes for two, three and four days respectively every week. Classes will be held in two groups and each group can have maximum of 25 students.
The department was also instructed to provide iron and folic acid tablets to students for boosting their immunity along with giving yoga classes and hold regular health screenings for students. He also directed the department to provide smart phones to students of economically disadvantaged sections for attending online classes.
All deputy commissioners have been asked to stay prepared for any emergency COVID-19 related situation and the education department has been directed to keep task forces, emergency service teams and toll free numbers ready for facing all eventualities.
Sonowal also directed the department for holding a meeting of vice chancellors to prepare guidelines for starting classes in all universities soon.
