Schools in Mumbai, rest of Maharashtra to reopen from THIS date
Amid rising demands for reopening of schools, Maharashtra Education Minister made a big announcement on Thursday (January 20). Schools will reopen across the state from Monday (January 24), after proposal from the education department was agreed to by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Varsha Gaikwad said.
As per the Education Minister, the schools will be required to ensure all Covid protocols are in place for reopening. “From 24 (January) we will be reopening schools for classes 1-12th with COVID protocols; Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has agreed to our proposal,” said Gaikwad.
The news of reopening comes after rising demand across the statement, which was noted by Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope last week. He had said, “Demands are rising from certain quarters for reopening of schools as children are suffering the education loss.”
Yesterday, addressing the situation, minister Gaikwad had hinted at the reopening of schools in Maharashtra from next week, saying that the education department was considering reopening from coming Monday.
The closure of schools had been announced by the state government earlier in January. The timeline at the time was kept at February 15 due to the sudden surge in Covid-19 cases across the state after the emergence of the Omicron variant late last year.
The minister said that while the government had chosen to discontinue offline classes earlier, it has been decided that sessions will start at schools where “number of cases is low based on the local Covid-19 situation” after discussion with experts.
Yesterday (January 19), the state reported 43,697 fresh cases of Covid-19, a 10% rise since the day before. Maharashtra also reported 49 deaths, as the total fatalities reached 1,41,934. The Omicron tally in the state stood at 1,860.