Schools in rural areas of distt to start from 26th: Collector
   Date :23-Nov-2020

Ravindra Thakare_1 &
 Ravindra Thakare, District Collector, interacting with officers
including Yogesh Kumbhejkar, CEO of ZP; and others during a meeting held in his chamber on Sunday.
 
Staff Reporter :
 
33,340 parents have given consent letter so far
 
 
Even as the civic administration has decided to keep the schools in Nagpur city shut till December 13, the district administration has announced that the schools in rural areas of district will re-open for Std IX to XII from November 26. “After consent of parents and following all guidelines relating to COVID-19, the schools in rural areas will re-open from November 26,” said Ravindra Thakare, District Collector, after a meeting held on Sunday. Since the order of Radhakrishnan B, Municipal Commissioner, that schools in Nagpur city would remain closed till December 13 against the backdrop of rising cases of COVID-19, people had started enquiring about the status of schools in rural areas of district. As per the State Government orders, the schools in rural areas of district were scheduled to re-open for Classes IX to XII from November 23 (Monday). The district and ZP administration were preparing for it.
 
According to the District Collector, the schools will re-open from November 26. “All necessary measures will be taken in these schools till November 24. The officers concerned have carried out inspection of the schools. Besides, 300 guardian officers have been appointed for inspection of schools,” Thakare said. The rural areas of Nagpur district (excluding Nagpur city and municipal council areas), total 5,779 teachers teach 1,30,578 students. RTPCR test has been conducted of 4,500 teachers, and 36 of them have tested positive for COVID-19. These teachers have been sent on leave for medication and home isolation. Besides, so far, 33,340 parents have given consent letter, said Yogesh Kumbhejkar. At the beginning of classes everyday, no mass prayer will be conducted. The time-table of each class will be different.
 
The schools will start at 10 am daily, and classes will be conducted for three to four hours. Care will be taken to ensure that the students do not form crowd and maintain physical distancing. Wearing masks will be mandatory in schools, said Kumbhejkar. Pulse oximeters, sanitisers, sodium hypochlorite solution etc are being provided to schools as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. The officials concerned have ascertained that none of the family members of students, whose parents have given consent letters, has COVID-19 symptoms.
 
A COVID-19 information booklet will be provided to these students. Besides, RTPCR test will be conducted if any teaching or non-teaching staff member has symptoms that resemble COVID-19 infection. The Headmasters of schools concerned have been asked to submit a daily report in this regard to respective Centre In-charge. Thakare held a joint meeting of Education Department, Health Department, and Revenue Department at his chamber. Bharati Patil, Chairperson of Education Committee of Zilla Parishad (ZP); Yogesh Kumbhejkar, Chief Executive Officer of ZP; Shrikant Phadke, Additional Collector; Dr D S Selokar, District Health Officer; Dr Sujata Gandhe, Deputy Collector; Vijaya Bankar, and others were prominent among those present in the meeting.