The Telangana High Court on Wednesday, February 2, directed the educational institutions in the state to conduct online classes in view of the current COVID-19 pandemic situation. Three days after the educational institutions re-opened across the state, the court directed them to conduct online classes along with physical classes for those students who prefer the virtual mode.
The court gave the directions while hearing petitions relating to the COVID situation in the state. Despite the COVID threat persisting, the state government announced reopening of the educational institutions from February 1, after extended Sankranti holidays for 23 days.
All schools, colleges and universities re-opened but the attendance remained poor as the state continues to report a large number of COVID cases. With many students and even teachers down with COVID, a majority of the private schools and colleges have not resumed physical classes.
Even in the government-run institutions, the attendance percentage remained around 42 per cent. According to the Education Department, about 23 lakh out of 55 lakh students in 38,307 schools attended offline classes on February 2.
Many parents are still reluctant to send their children to schools due to the persisting COVID threat. Due to a sudden spurt in COVID cases, the government had declared early Sankranti holidays from January 8 to 16 and later extended it till January 30.
The state's daily COVID tally remained at more than 2,500. On Wednesday, the number of cases stood at 2,646. The Test Positivity Rate (TPR) is about 3 per cent. However, in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits, the TPR is about 5 per cent. GHMC and surrounding urban districts of Ranga Reddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri continue to report 60 per cent of the daily cases.
