Need to restore normalcy in education, says govt

Pradhan’s statement came after he attended a meeting in New Delhi to review the vaccination status of teaching and non-teaching employees in schools and skill centres. Minister of State for Skill Development Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Minister of State for Education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh were among those in attendance.

In as many as 22 states and union territories, schools have been allowed to resume as the Covid-19 outbreak has receeded across the country, according to the government.

Last year in March, all educational institutes were closed for physical classes when the 68-day hard lockdown was imposed. Schools in several states reopened briefly by the end of 2020, but were once again forced to switch to online classes when the devastating second wave hit.

“Pradhan stressed upon the need to restore normalcy and vibrancy in the educational institutions in wake of rapid vaccination at scale happening in the country. As on date, a majority of states have already opened the schools for all the classes. Over 92% of teaching staff have been vaccinated. In the institutions under the Central Government, over 96% of teaching staff have been vaccinated,” a Ministry of Education statement said. Responding to a query, a spokesperson of the ministry said 86 per cent of the non-teaching staff in schools across the country has received at least one dose of the vaccine. “While not all of them are fully vaccinated, we can say with certainty that the majority of teachers and non-teaching staff have received two doses,” one official said.

The Centre did not, however, share a state-wise break up of vaccinations among school staff.

In six states and UTs — Ladakh, Punjab, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Nagaland, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu — schools have reopened for classes 6 to 12. In Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, senior school classes from 9 to 12 have resumed.

Schools remain completely shut in Manipur and West Bengal (although the state plans to restart classes for students of 9-12 from mid-November).

Activists say school closure has hit students hard world over. The National Coalition on the Education Emergency, an advocacy group working to promote the Right to Education, said on Tuesday that due to the long shutdown, “the levels of dropout and/or disengagement from school can be expected to be high”.