Over 6.6 teachers, employees to undergo COVID test before starting 5th to 8th classes;

Aurangabad, Jan 18:

A total of 6,654 teaching and non-teaching members of 2,218 school will undergo RTPCR test before restarting the classes from 5th to 8th standards. The State Government granted permission on Monday to reopen the schools with 5th to 8th standards, from January 27.

The school employees test process will commence after the local administration gives permissions to restart classes for 3.38 lakh students of the district.

There are 441 such schools in the city areas with 1.13 lakh students while in rural areas there are 1,777 schools with 2.75 students.

The schools' premises will be cleaned with disinfectant with the help of local gram panchayat, Panchayat Department and Municipal Corporation. The civic bodies will also provide a thermal gun, pulse oxymeter mask and other materials to the school.

The classes for the 9th to 12th standard students restarted from November 23 in rural areas and later in city areas. The attendance in 9th and 11th classes is below 50 per cent.

Primary Education Department submitted the instructions to the Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Parishad. The Department received instructions in the meeting from the Education Directorate. Instructions will be issued to the schools once the CEO and district collector give permissions.

The Health Department is planning to provide COVID test and report facility health centres-wise for the teachers. The standard-wise number of students strength is as follows; Fifth standard (87,869), sixth (86,207), seventh (85,044) and eighth (79,633).

Primary Education Officer Surajprasad Jaiswal said that planning is being with the help of the Health Department for RTPCR test of teachers at health centres which are within the jurisdiction of the schools.

“After district collector’s orders, instructions will be issued to the school. The disinfectant will be sprayed in schools from rural areas with the help of the Panchayat Department. They will also be provided with the thermal gun, oxymeter and mask. In the city areas, the AMC will spray disinfectant in the school premises,” he added.