West Bengal govt tells district magistrates to ensure primary schools reopen tomorrow

Kolkata: The West Bengal government has issued a separate notification asking all district magistrates and authorities of primary and secondary schools to ensure classes from nursery to Class 7 begin from February 16.

In a notification to the district magistrates, the school education department said the additional district magistrate (education) should act as the nodal officer to coordinate with upper primary and primary schools for starting classes from February 16 after sanitisation and enforcement of all covid protocol by February 16.

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"All the teaching and non-teaching staff of Class 1 to 7 are asked to report at their respective schools on February 15 so that the physical classes commence from February 16".

The state government on Monday allowed the reopening of schools for primary and upper primary classes from February 16 after an improvement in the pandemic situation.

Physical classes for the lower sections will recommence after a gap of two years with strict adherence to a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the School Education Department. Offline classes for students of Class 8 to 12 have begun from February 3.

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Earlier on February 10, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that primary schools in the state could be reopened after a few more days following a proper evaluation of the Covid-19 situation and talks with school authorities. Some caution should be exercised before reopening the primary schools since there are warnings of another variant of the coronavirus and students could be allowed to attend classes in a rotational manner.