States can decide on reopening schools: Centre

New Delhi, February 3

Noting a contraction in the third wave of Covid-19 and a consistent decline in new cases for 14 days, the government today said it was up to states and district administrations to reopen schools, keeping the Education Ministry’s Covid guidelines in mind.

“Overall, there is a contraction in the spread of infection. There are 268 districts with under 5 per cent positivity. These can now move in the direction of non-Covid care, school opening and other activities. Declining trend of the pandemic allows us to think of these options,” Member (Health), NITI Aayog, VK Paul said as the Health Ministry noted daily infections plummeting after hitting a peak with 3,47,254 cases on January 21. New cases (1,72,433) recorded today are nearly half of that peak.

Paul said with the third wave contracting, the overall decision on opening schools rests with states and district administrations. “We would like to ensure the schools run according to protocols because we are still in the midst of a pandemic. By implementing the SOPs prepared by the Education Ministry in consultation with states, we can ensure safe schooling… We have come a long way now and we have more confidence to go in the direction of running schools,” Paul said. The Education Ministry, meanwhile, said schools were already fully open in 11 states, partially (with higher classes) in 16 states and closed in nine states.

Arunachal Pradesh, MP, Sikkim, Karnataka, Telangana, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Manipur and Assam are running schools. Schools are, however, closed in Punjab, Bihar, UP, Puducherry, Jharkhand, Ladakh, J&K, Odisha and Delhi.

The Education Ministry said it had modified school-reopening guidelines, allowing states and UTs to decide on their own whether schools need to seek parental consent for students to attend physical classes. Earlier, parental consent was mandated.

Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said 34 states were recording decline in cases and positivity and only Kerala and Mizoram were recording more cases and positivity surge. Kerala has seen positivity rise from 13.3 per cent one month ago to 47 per cent now and Mizoram from 17 per cent to 34.1 per cent. —