Schools in Gujarat to reopen for classes 10, 12 from January 11

“Schools and colleges will have to follow the SOP (standard operating procedure) laid out by the Centre, which has already been conveyed to all educational institutes. A decision to reopen other classes is under consideration and an announcement is likely to be made within 10 days,” Chudasama added. The minister also ruled out rumours and demands from some section for mass promotion and said there will be “no mass promotion but examinations will be based only on the curriculum covered”.

On November 13, the state education department had issued a government resolution (GR) notifying guidelines for reopening of colleges and universities from November 23. Principal Secretary (education) Anju Sharma Wednesday said, “The higher education institutes will reopen as per the SOP issued in November. Only the dates for reopening will be different. No fresh SOP will be issued.”

As per the November 13 GR, according to the requirement of the course and keeping in mind the number of students, institutes have to fix the class strength. “The classes can be either divided into two equal halves or in three sections of one-third strength in each. College principals or university vice-chancellors will have to decide the class strength. One batch of students will be called for three days while the other groups for the remaining three days,” the notification stated.

On November 18, the state government had issued another government resolution (GR) outlining the conditions and SOPs to be followed by schools, parents, and students once the schools are reopened.

The parents, in their consent letters to be submitted to the school, will assure that they have gone through the entire SOPs and guarantee to follow these guidelines. Also, a sample consent letter, issued by the education department, asks the parents to assure that a student will come to the school wearing a face mask, with a water bottle and breakfast, and will not share these with others.

To avoid overcrowding in schools, the state government had earlier directed them to follow an odd-even formula.