Ludhiana: Education department seeks extension of summer break in schools

LUDHIANA: Alarmed by the rise in Covid cases, the education department has sought extension of summer break in schools. The authorities have started consultations with the health department for the purpose.
The department is working on the academic calendar and deliberating on various measures, including extension of summer break or switching to online classes to minimise academic loss, an official in the education department said.
Gurpreet, a government teacher, said, “We need to keep in mind the coronavirus situation. Online classes can be conducted to make up for the academic loss. More suggestions should be invited on the issue in the first week of July.”
Health officials said, “We are focussing on vaccines once the schools reopen. The Covid vaccination for 12-14 year age groups has begun from March 16. In the district there are more than 1 lakh children in this age group who are eligible for vaccination. So far, 69,219 (63.45%) of them have been administered vaccines and 23.66% of them have got the second dose. About 72.96% of those in the 15-17 age group have received the first vaccine dose so far. As per the health department, there are 1.78 lakh teenagers in the 15-17 age group, out of which 1,30,567 (72.61%) have received the first shot of the vaccine and 68,025 have got the second dose.”