Week after opening, HP schools stare at closure

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 9

With a steep rise in the number of government schoolteachers and students reporting Covid positive, the Himachal Pradesh education authorities are considering to again shut the schools either indefinitely or for a certain period to snap the infection chain.

The Education Department has asked the schools, opened on a regular basis for classes IX to XII from November 2, to submit details of the positive cases.

The matter is likely to be taken up at a Cabinet meeting tomorrow, being held in the absence of Education Minister Govind Thakur, who himself had tested positive and has been admitted to a hospital.

Cases up, 123 teachers test positive

• 123 govt schoolteachers and four students have tested positive so far
• Schools were reopened on Nov 2 for classes IX-XII after a long Covid break
• 67 students testing positive at a Tibetan boarding school in Mandi had set alarm bells ringing

Sources said there was a possibility that the educational institutions may be closed for a week or 10 days to break the infection chain.

Though 74 per cent of the parents had favoured the reopening of schools and colleges, the attendance has barely touched 30 per cent.

“What set the alarm bells ringing is 67 students and 25 teachers and staff members testing positive at the Tibetan Children Village boarding school at Chauntra in Mandi,” said a Health Department official.

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