Bhubaneswar: The Confederation of Odisha Public Schools, in a letter to the School and Mass Education department, Saturday, said that the decision to reopen schools partially was taken in haste and that it involves risks.
The confederation cited order No. 6145 dated 31-10-2020 issued by the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) which stated that schools will be reopened from November 16, 2020 for Classes IX to XII in strict adherence to Covid-19 guidelines.
Confederation president BN Patnaik said, “We strongly feel that any decision of resuming regular classes should be taken only after an elaborate discussion with all the stakeholders like parents and teachers associations, school management representatives, medical experts among others. We request you to kindly defer the decision of reopening the schools from November 16 onwards for students of Class IX, X, XI and XII till such a collective opinion is arrived.”
The confederation said that the step involves risks as students and teachers would be exposed to the dangerous pandemic which is yet to subside.
Most of the parents of Class IX to XII students are not in favour of resuming regular classes from November 16, 2020 as the students as well as teachers will be exposed to the virus which is still very much virulent, said Patnaik.
“Once again we request you to look into all the risks involved in reopening of the schools immediately,” he added.
Meanwhile, Odisha Parents Federation (OPF) also objected to the SRC’s move of reopening schools saying that before Puja holidays the government had said that coronavirus pandemic will be high and effective in winter but now the SRC has given a guideline which is contradictory to the government’s declaration.
The OPF demanded that the new academic calendar should consist of 180 working days from December and syllabus reduced upto 30 per cent.
