Goa schools resume offline classes; students happy to be back on campus

PANAJI: Schools in Goa resumed physical sessions for all classes on Monday, with students appearing happy and excited to be back on campus after the coronavirus-induced break. Most of the schools reported good attendance in the morning, state education director Bhushan Savaikar told PTI. The educational institutions have been asked to strictly follow the standard operating procedures and COVID-19 appropriate behaviour, he said.

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The schools in the coastal state had moved to the online mode after the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. On Monday, the schools resumed offline sessions for Classes 1 to 12 as well as the pre-primary ones, Sawaikar said. “There is enthusiasm among students as they are returning to physical classes after such a gap,” he said.

In the wake of a decline in COVID-19 cases in Goa, the state education department had last week issued a circular for the resumption of offline classes from Monday. The education department had also instructed schools to conduct the exams in offline mode only and not to make uniforms mandatory for students. It had also said that timing concession, if required, may be given to students in initial days.

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On Sunday, Goa reported 40 new COVID-19 cases and three fatalities, raising the infection tally in the state to 2,44,713 and the death toll to 3,792, as per official figures.