Maharashtra has announced the reopening of schools for classes 1-12 from January 24 with Covid protocols.

Education minister Varsha Gaikwad said on Thursday that the government will reopen schools for classes 1-12th with Covid protocols from January 24. “We have also decided to open pre-primary schools. The CM has agreed to our proposal. Our SOPs are very strict and clear. We have given four days advance notice to the management of schools to undertake vaccination and sanitization and for preparation of time-table. The timing and other necessary decisions will be taken by the local authorities like the district collector or municipal commissioner based on the local situations” the minister was quoted as saying.

Detailed guidelines for reopening will be released soon.

In the wake of the rising number of Covid-19 cases and the emergence of the omicron variant in December end-early January, the state government had ordered the closing of all schools and colleges for offline classes on from January 8 to February 15.

In recent days, many parents associations and ministers have made requests to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to consider reopening schools as students were facing difficulties in online classes.

The Parent Association of Mumbai 2021 along with MESTA (Maharashtra English school trustees association) had written to the CM and municipal commissioner asking for urgent reopening of schools by Monday, January 24.

Parents said schools in Maharashtra have been closed for 700 days and counting when education should be considered an essential service like elsewhere in the world. They said that schools are non-commercial areas and not super spreaders like malls, restaurants, bars, and commercial areas which are allowed to remain open.

Earlier, health minister Rajesh Tope had said that demands are rising from certain quarters for reopening of schools as children are suffering the education loss. He said the final call will be taken by the CM after a few days as infection among children is low.