Bhubaneswar: Following the instruction of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the School and Mass Education (S&ME) Department has formed a special cell at OSEPA to monitor Covid-19 related incidents in the schools.
The Covid Monitoring Cell has been constituted in the office of the State Project Director (SPD), Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA) with a Command Control Centre.
Arati Rout, Joint Director (Utkarsh, Library & CCC) has been appointed as head of Covid Compliance Officer while Kalpana Hansdah, Deputy Director (Access & Vocational) is the Assistant Covid Compliance Officer.
All the staff of Command Control Centre will facilitate the above said work and collect the daily attendance of the Class-IX, X, XI & XII and information related to various COVID incidents of the districts and submit to above officials in addition to their own duties.
The officials engaged in the Cell will collect the daily attendance of the Class-IX, X, XI & XII and monitor various Covid related incidents of the districts and submit report on daily basis to SPD, OSEPA.
The Government has also asked all the District Education Officers (DEOs) to constitute a Covid monitoring cell at district-level as soon as possible and appoint a senior officer as Covid compliance officer.
The Covid Compliance Officers will ensure implementation of the Covid protocol in the schools and collect daily attendance of the Class-IX to XII students and submit it to the OSEPA on a daily basis.
“If any Covid related incident occurs in the district, it will be reported on that-very day to the undersigned without delay,” the Government said.
Meanwhile, the School and Mass Education, Principal Secretary, Satyabrata Sahu has issued a fresh SOP for the functioning of schools.
In a letter to all DEOs, Sahu said the teachers will have to ensure that students coming to school must wear masks. In case, any student has come to school without a mask, the school administration should not allow the student to enter into the school premises.
At the entry point, thermal screening and hand sanitization of all the students must be ensured, he said. Sahu asked the officials to ensure social distancing inside the class room and not to allow any student, teacher, non-teaching staff having mild symptoms like cold, sneezing and fever.
The SMC/SMDC must be sensitized time and again along with the local PRI members about Covid-19 and their role in sensitizing the school going children through their parents, the Principal Secretary said.
“The BRCCs/CRCCs (around 5000 in the State) should be tagged with school for periodical visit and ensure that all stakeholders are following Covid Appropriate Behaviour,” he directed.
The local administration including health administration should be updated in case of any major development which affects the offline teaching. As usual both online and offline teaching will continue and no student should be forced to come to school. Attendance in offline class is not mandatory, he clarified.
The Nodal Officers of the respective districts have been asked to remain in touch with the DEOs and the respective Directors will be intimated on daily basis about the attendance and the same should be sent through Whatapp in the S&ME Group by 2 PM each day.
The EM Control Room set up at Head ‘Quarter will monitor the above instructions on a daily basis. Any deviation will be viewed seriously by the Department, he warned.
