Maharashtra schools reopen today, Physical presence not mandatory

Mumbai: The schools in Maharashtra for classes 1-12 have reopened from today abiding Covid-19 protocols. The School Education Minister of State Varsha Gaikwad had announced the same last week.

Reportedly, the State Government has also decided to reopen the pre-primary schools and begin the offline classes from today.

Education Minister Gaikwad specifically mentioned that the consent of parents’ will play a vital role in students’ attendance as the physical presence have not been made mandatory in schools.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has also allowed the reopening of schools in capital city, Mumbai after assessing the Covid situation in respective areas.

However, the schools in Pune and Aurangabad will remain closed and online classes will be continued as the Covid cases are still on the rise.

It is to be noted that a survey has found about 62% parents in Maharashtra are unwilling to allow their kids to school from today. The survey was conducted through an online platform across tier-I, tier-II/III and tier-IV cities of the state.

The Test Positivity Rate (TPR) in the state continues to remain high at 23.4 per cent, said reports.

Adding to it, one of the main reason behind parents’ unwillingness to send their kids in-person to schools is much likely that the children under the age of 15 years are still unvaccinated while the 15-18 age group have only been partially vaccinated during a situation when the Omicron variant of Covid is highly transmissible.