
A day after several schools opened for in-person classes for the first time this academic session, following a go-ahead from the Maharashtra government, another 148 schools opened in Pune district on Tuesday, taking the total number of schools that reopened post the Covid-19 pandemic to a total of 346 schools.
About 12,580 students attended classes across the 346 schools in Pune district.
While schools located in areas under Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad civic bodies remained shut, in the rest of the district, schools functioned following social distancing norms for students from Class IX to XII, said Zilla Parishad Education Officer Ganpat More.
There are a total of 1,246 schools in Pune district, in which the combined student population in the four classes is nearly 2.38 lakh.
“The state government has instructed that RT-PCR tests are mandatory for teachers and the support staff before a school is reopened. Since test reports of many are pending, it is taking time to reopen schools. But we estimate that around 150-200 schools will open daily and by December 1, all schools should have opened, ” said More.