In accordance with the recent announcement regarding the reopening of schools and colleges across the state from February 1st, Telangana School Education Department issued guidelines for the same.
A 9-member District Level Education Monitoring Committee (DLEMC), each headed by the District Collector in all 33 districts, is proposed to be setup.
The committee’s role would be to design a blueprint of plans prior to January 18th. They are also directed to ensure the sanitization of all educational institutions before students and staff step in on January 20th. Abiding by all SOPs, proper sanitization work, maintenance of social distancing and other norms will have to be monitored.
Unlike earlier times when school teachers were required to attend schools only on alternate days, they will now be instructed to work daily from the school itself.
As far as the students are concerned, their attendance is not mandatory, according to the Ministry’s guidelines. Students are given the liberty to continue with online classes if they choose not to return to physical classes at schools.
Other guidelines issued are as follows:
- Physical classes require compulsory written consent from the parents of students who wish to attend them.
- Hostellers will be provided with temporary make-shift partitions to allow social distancing between each roommate.
- Exams do not necessitate attendance as every student can appear for tests leaving the fret of attendance.
- Midday meals will resume being served to all students again while the Headmasters are given the duty to ensure the food’s hygiene.
- To be prepared for any emergency following suspected cases, each school will own 2 isolation centers.
- None of the students from grades 1-8 will be given detention as schools haven’t reopened for them.
- Intermediate colleges that have more than 300 students need to function in 2 phases.
On January 11th, CM KCR announced that starting from February 1st, grades 9th and above will resume regular physical classes in their respective schools of the state. Apart from classes 9th and 10th, the Telangana government had permitted intermediate, degree colleges and other institutions offering vocational courses too to reopen.
The announcement came following a high-level meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on Monday, headed by CM KCR and which witnessed the presence of Ministers, District Collectors, and officials of different departments concerned with the matter. A week ago, the Telangana Parents Association members had met Sabitha Indra Reddy, the Education Minister, in order to discuss the reopening of schools.
The Chief Minister instructed all government and private schools teaching Classes 9, 10, and Intermediate, including Classes 11 and 12, to make the required arrangement for the resumption of classroom-teaching. He ordered that the same must also begin for students of degree, post-graduation, and vocational courses.
