Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Shahid Iqbal Choudhary Monday said district administration will sensitize students, teachers and school managements about adopting COVID19 protocols to facilitate reopening of educational institutions.
Speaking during a programme titled “COVID19; Safe Schools” organized by district administration Srinagar, DC Srinagar ShahidIqbalChoudhary said that district administration will prepare and train school going students for following COVID19 safety guidelines.
He added that district administration will help schools in building capacity infrastructure so that it would be convenient for school management to adopt safety norms.
The government had ordered re-opening of schools in a staggered manner for academic activities from February 8th and March 1st 2021 respectively. All the educational institutions including Schools, Colleges and Universities remained closed from March last year in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, which claimed around 2,000 lives in Jammu and Kashmir so far.
“As the government has taken decision to reopen schools, we are preparing students, teachers and school management for safety guidelines. Currently, schools are closed in Kashmir but are reopening educational institutions in Jammu as per government directions,” the DC said.
He added that it would take around four weeks to prepare all schools for adoption of safety guidelines on reopening them.
“It has been around a year now that schools remained closed due to pandemic. In Srinagar, we have around 1.40 lakh students and one thousand schools. It will take around four weeks for us to prepare all stakeholders for effective adoption of COVID19 safety guidelines,” he said.
He added that the schools would be also issued a certificate by district administration once they finish capacity building and are fit to adopt safety guidelines.
“Before opening the schools, we have launched a one month long COVID-19 safety awareness programme for educational institutions, where a special training and certification programme will be given to teachers, safety and hygiene support will be given by district administration and teachers have to connect a good bond with parents for which teachers will be trained,” he said.
He added the district administration will frame the ‘School Safety Plan’, under which interactions will be held with both parents and students,” he said.
“We are aware that schools have to adopt all safety guidelines including maintain social distancing in classes and school premises. There are also other important safety guidelines which need t be followed in letter and spirit,” he said.
He informed that education, communication and information mediums would be also pressed for educating people on reopening of schools and following safety guidelines.
He added that currently tutorials and coaching centres are functioning
An official sad that today’s a special programme-cum-awareness meeting was held regarding the opening of schools in district Srinagar.
The awareness program was presided over by DC Srinagar, along side with Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Srinagar Syed HaneefBalkhi.
A presentation was given by GMC Community Science department, regarding the COVID19 SoPs and guidelines, which need to be followed in schools.