Centre to states: Administer at least one dose of vaccine to all teachers and staff in Sept

NEW DELHI: The union education ministry Tuesday asked the states and union territories to vaccinate all teachers and staff with at least one dose of vaccines in September, and those who have already got first dose should be vaccinated fully within the month, it directed.

Union school education secretary Anita Karwal held a meeting Tuesday through video conferencing over school safety and asked health and education authorities in states to quickly devise a district level roadmap to achieve the results. The move comes as most states reopen physical schools in a staggered way and the union government has promised to supply 20 million more doses of vaccine besides the state quota.

“During the discussion Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy (DOSEL) advised all the states and UTS to get the 1st dose of vaccination completed for all the teaching and non-teaching staff during the month of September 2021 and those teaching and nonteaching staff who have already received 1st dose should be followed up rigorously for the 2nd dose,” an education ministry spokesperson said.

Further the Secretary…advised Health and Education Secretaries of all States and UTS to jointly design a road map at district level for vaccination of all the teaching and nonteaching staff. Department of School Education and Literacy is also obtaining the information on vaccination of teachers on weekly basis from States and UTS through tracker, the ministry spokesperson informed.

The moves comes, a week after the union health and education ministry announced to supply 20 million more doses of covid-19 vaccines in addition to the states’ quota for August.

Officials from both the ministries said the move will facilitate reopening of physical schools, by providing a safe environment for both teachers and students. States are gradually allowing schools to open for Classes IX to XII. Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had last week said the vaccination drive for teachers will help the sector, which was severely impacted since mid-march 2020, to recover.

Schools and colleges were allowed to reopen in phases by Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat and Punjab. Schools in Delhi are reopening from 1 Sep in a staggered way .

India is home to at least 9.4 million school teachers and several millions more non-teaching staff. Though the Centre did not declare teachers as frontline workers, some states immunized teachers on a priority considering their role in resuming physical classes.

Even Unesco urged countries to prioritise teachers in their inoculation drive. “While the protection of teachers is essential for schools to reopen safely, just 21 out of 197 countries— accounting for 18 million primary and secondary teachers— prioritized teachers in the first phase of vaccination efforts. Another 37 countries included teachers as a priority group for the second phase of vaccinations,” the UN body had said earlier this year.