Srinagar, Feb 23 (KNS): Government has decided to open the schools on March Ist in a phased manner.

Talking to "Kashmir News Service" (KNS) , Director School Education Muhammad Yonus Malik said that Schools from 9-12 class shall open from 1 march and the elementary schools will open from March 8th. 

 its UT level decision to open throw the schools from March 1. We are continuously monitoring the situation. All the walks of life are gradually returning back to work, and the administration has reached to decision to throw open the schools as well. An order has been issued yesterday that Schools from 9-12 standard shall open from 1 march and the elementary schools will open from March 8th." 

However he said that teachers of elementary classes shall attend the schools from March 1, and students shall physically attend classes from March 08, 2021. 

"We have set guidelines to have safe schooling. We have already started cleanliness and sanitation drive and the situation will be continuously monitored, so that parents shall feel that their wards are in safe hands,"he said.

There will be no compromise on SOPs, wearing mask, social distancing and frequent hand sanitizing is necessary to have safe schooling, he said.

"We have around 13 thousand schools including private ones with admission of 13 lac students, and we have given them guidelines that wearing mask, social distancing and hand sanitizing is very important," he told KNS. 

"We have also given direction to schools heads to plan as per prevailing situation. The schooling will be staggered manner, like the school heads can ask students to avoid morning assembly and other co-curricular activities. We can maintain distance whatever way we can, he said.

"However we have sufficient space, in case there is any space crunch at any institution, there will be segregation, stagger or odd even process, the school heads will take care of it," he sais.

We will have task force, both at zonal and district level to monitor the situation continuously, he added.

While answering to question about loss that student’s suffered last year, he said "we have tried our best, whatever the resources we have at our command we utilized them. We have started community classes, assignments and online classes, we have delivered lectures on TV and radio.

With the improvement in weather, we can have open classes again.

The parents should feel that their wards are in safe hands, we are continuously monitoring the situation, there is no need to worry, we are hopeful schools will open on a good note, he added.