Bhubaneswar: After a gap of nearly two years, schools for class I to VII students have been reopened in Odisha on Monday amid strict adherence to Covid-19 protocols.
Bishnupada Sethi, Principal Secretary School & Mass Education was monitoring all the pre-school opening arrangements, so that kids will not face any problem.
Mr.Sethi along with other senior officials of the Department of School & Mass Education were in constant touch with DEOs across the State, said a senior official.
Though the State Government had announced to resume classroom teaching for the class I to VII students from February 14, it was delayed for Panchayat election in the State. The schools were reopened on that day, but students were allowed from today after proper cleaning and sanitization.
The schools and colleges for other higher class students have already reopened from February 7 in the State.
The schools reopened at sharp 10 AM. In some schools, the students were welcomed through offering flowers and tika to give a festive feeling to children. In a school of Mohana block in Gajapati district, the students were welcomed by beating drums.
“We have made special arrangements to welcome the students. Besides greeting the students at the main gate, arrangements were made to welcome the students at each classroom, said a teacher of government high school, Unit-IX, Bhubaneswar.
Students were seen wearing masks while entering the schools. “I am excited and feeling very happy as our school reopened today and will meet my teachers and friends, “said Swapnashree Satpathy, a class III student of a primary school in Cuttack city.
Prior to reopening of the schools, the classrooms and premises were properly sanitized and seating arrangements have been made in accordance with the social distance norm. A parent-teacher meeting was also conducted yesterday.
The School and Mass Education, Principal Secretary, Bishnupada Sethi had asked the schools conduct a rapport building exercise for one week to ensure the students do not face any stress in their school.
The students will be engaged in exercise like clay modeling or any craft work with locally available raw materials.
Sessions on word puzzle games, asking the students about fruit name, animal name etc. (both Odia & English), storytelling, painting, etc. will be conducted in the schools.
Baseline assessment of the children (from class I –V) will be done at the schools in Odia language, Math & English on March 9, 10 & 11 respectively to know their learning level. The assessment questions developed by TE&SCERT for three levels i.e Grade I, Grade II & III, Grade IV & V will be provided to the school.
The Baseline assessment will be followed by identification of learning status as well as learning loss of each child. The Principal Secretary has asked the schools to share the progress of students with their parents every week.