SCHOOLS, MORE CLASSES REOPEN ACROSS STATES

NEW DELHI: Eight states apart from the national capital expanded on Wednesday the resumption of schools for students with strict guidelines on social distancing and sanitising, and each saw low attendance levels on the first day due to hesitancy from parents or lack of readiness of institutions.

If in Delhi, classes 9 to 12 opened for the first time since March last year, Haryana, where middle, secondary and senior secondary schools were already functioning, opened its doors students in the primary classes 4 and 5. Madhya Pradesh saw its first school opening after the pandemic, with classes 6 to 12 opening on Wednesday, while in Uttar Pradesh, classes 1 to 5 resumed classroom teaching. In Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, students of classes 9 to 12 returned to school, while in Telangana all classes except residential schools and tribal welfare schools with hostel facilities were allowed to open.

In many of these states, however, online classes remained an option.

Schools in Haryana reported an attendance rate of 26%, with officials attributing this to both heavy rain and some measure of Covid-related hesitancy. However, for those children that did make it to school, it was day when they met classmates after nearly 18 months.

In Madhya Pradesh, among the checks put in place by the state administration include schools could only open with 50% attendance, with each student allowed to attend class three times in a week.