The Central government is working on a model for the staggered re-opening of schools wherein COVID-19 protocols would be maintained, official sources told news agency PTI on January 27.
Schools have been closed in most parts of the country after the emergence of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. Students have been made to attend classes online, barring a short period of a few months last year, ever since the Coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020. "As parents have been demanding for the opening of schools, the Union government is working on a model for staggered opening of schools following all COVID related protocols," a highly-placed source said.
A delegation of parents — led by an epidemiologist and public health policy specialist Chandrakant Lahariya and the Centre for Policy Research president Yamini Aiyar — had met Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on January 26 to submit a memorandum, signed by over 1,600 parents, demanding that the schools be reopened.
The Delhi government had recommended reopening of schools in the national capital, but a decision on this was postponed till the next meeting by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, which is scheduled to be held on January 27. It has become necessary to prevent further damage to the social and emotional well-being of children, Sisodia had said on January 26.
Asserting that online education can never replace in-person education, Sisodia had said that his government had closed schools when it was not safe for children, but excessive caution is now harming students. After being briefly reopened, schools in Delhi were closed on December 28 last year in view of the third wave of COVID-19.
