Classes VII-VIII can return to school on November 25: Goa govt

PANAJI: The state government on Monday allowed schools to conduct physical classes for Classes VII and VIII from November 25. Director of education Bhushan Savaikar said that the broad SOPs will be issued on Tuesday.
Last week, the state expert committee, based on recommendations of the Covid task force, had given its approval to start offline classes from Class I to VIII. But CM and education minister Pramod Sawant had said that the government is still examining the proposal.
Officials now said that no approval has come from the government about allowing physical classes for Class I to VIII, even though the expert committee doctors were of the view that it is safe to even hold classes for nursery section as the state Covid positivity rate is at an all-time low.
As per the task force’s decision, for Class VII and VIII, it will be left to the school managements to take a call on how to go about conducting physical classes based on the schools’ enrolment, infrastructure and other ground conditions.
Already, sessions for Class IX to XII are on in the state in hybrid mode — using a combination of online and offline classes.
The expert committee has already cautioned that the SOPs issued by the directorate of education should be treated as broad guidelines, and that managements should draw up their own instructions for students to ensure social distancing and other precautions against Covid.
As per the expert committee’s suggestions, schools are not to organise assemblies, and are to adopt staggered timings. Schools have been asked to counsel parents to take both doses of vaccination.
School staff have already been told to produce a Covid-negative certificate on a weekly basis if they are not vaccinated.