Can’t let students in remote villages drop out of edu ecosystem: Min

Nagpur: The state education department on Wednesday issued a GR permitting schools in rural areas to reopen in physical mode from July 15 if they meet some very stringent criteria like entire village being Covid-19 free for a month.
Apart from this, a committee headed by the sarpanch will also consider the school’s application for reopening based on other factors (see box).
For city students whose school campuses are in rural areas, allowing entry on campus will be at the discretion of a special committee. Speaking exclusively to TOI, school education minister Varsha Gaikwad said, “We have formed a committee at gram panchayat level that shall be headed by the sarpanch. The committee will include government officials (see box) as well and will consider multiple factors before taking a decision on reopening.”
Gaikwad reiterated that the main purpose of allowing schools to reopen was to ensure that those in remote villages are not left out of the academic ecosystem. “There is a problem of internet connectivity and access to digital learning platforms in villages and that’s becoming a barrier for learning. The more students stay away from school and learning, the more are their chances for dropping out. We cannot let that happen and hence, every effort is being made to keep them connected with schools,” said Gaikwad.
Though the state government initiated teaching projects through public broadcast platform too, students in back-of-the-beyond places were still left out.
“In these small villages if there have been no Covid-19 cases, then reopening can be done,” said Gaikwad, who is also a qualified teacher. “Our effort is to bring kids in such villages back to school and learn in physical mode. We are urging district collectors to vaccinate teachers on a priority basis so that they are in a better position to take our ‘back to school’ mission forward,” said Gaikwad.
Stressing on the need for safety, Gaikwad said the standard operating procedures (SOPs) have been prepared with a lot of thought. “Even things like transportation of students has been looked at in detail. We would prefer parents dropping/picking kids because that would help them avoid the buses. And if they do use school bus, then strict instructions regarding sanitization have been given,” said Gaikwad.
After closure of schools when the Covid-19 pandemic hit last year, Maharashtra government waited till November 23 to allow reopening of schools. As weeks passed, attendance figures across the state skyrocketed with daily attendance touching almost 50 lakh.
Education officials said it is unlikely that any school would reopen on July 15 itself as a ‘lot of paperwork’ has to be done.