A flurry of activity was witnessed in schools in the last couple of days all over the district as most of them were readied for commencement of classes.
The premises were sanitised with sodium hypochlorite and students told to get prepared for physical (in-person) classes by wearing masks and sanitising hands before entering classrooms.
The modalities of reopening of schools in Andhra Pradesh were not finalised till Thursday evening, while the government had announced that they would start functioning from Monday.
Anantapur Joint Collector A. Siri tells The Hindu, “All preparatory work for the reopening of schools has been done. Textbooks have been supplied to many students. It is, however, not clear if there will be classes on alternate days or only 50% strength of the class will be allowed.”
However, all schools (both government and private) have been told to keep everything ready for reopening with COVID-19 protocols followed. Cleaning of classrooms in Nehru Municipal Upper Primary School was witnessed in Anantapur, where the headmaster supervised the work and got hand sanitisers ready at the entrance. Temperature measuring guns were also being readied.
There are 5,129 Primary, Upper Primary, and High Schools run by the State government, local bodies, aided and un-aided private institutions in the district with 6,09,662 students enrolled for the current academic year.
“There are 22,604 teachers and 75% of them have been vaccinated and the rest will also get inoculated before classes commence,” says in-charge District Education Officer Rangaswamy.
Students have been told during their online classes that there will be off-line classes from Monday, but no official communication has come from the school management yet. “I am eager to send my children to school as it will help him learn his subjects better due to direct interaction with teachers,” says Siva Chakravarthy, whose two children go to a private school.
