Odisha defers reopening of primary classes

The Odisha government has decided to defer its decision to resume classes for primary school students from Monday January 3 in view of a sharp increase of Covid-19 cases. The state reported 424 new Covid cases, its highest in 2 months. “No decision has been taken over resuming offline classes for primary students. Amidst the latest threat of Omicron variant, the state government will not be in a hurry to variant, the state government will not be in a hurry to reopen primary classes as safety of children is a top priority for us," said school and mass education minister Samir Ranjan Das. School and mass education department officials however said the physical mode of teaching for classes 6 to 10 students will continue as per the previous schedule. 

Over 20,000 primary schools were scheduled to reopen for physical classes on January 3, followed by another 3,093 schools on January 10, according to the schedule announced by the government. . Similarly, the summative assessment examination for class 10 students will be conducted as per schedule by the Board of Secondary Education between January 5 and 8. After the second wave of Covid infections started in April, physical classes across Odisha were suspended. physical classes resumed for classes 10 and 12 students in July while the same for class 9 students resumed on August 16. Classroom teaching for class 8 and 11 began on October 25. Students of classes 6 and 7 returned to classrooms from November 15. The Odisha Board of Secondary Education has already reduced the syallabus of Class 9 and 10 by more than 33% after the disruption in the academic calendar. It also unveiled a scheme of assessment for the session 2021-22 for classes 9 and 10 students under which internal assessments will be done by the class/ subject teachers periodically in continuous manner in the form of formative assessments.