Summary
Schools have reopened with a week-long rapport building exercise to build morale
Citing cleaning, sanitation and rural elections, the date to reopen schools was moved from February 14 to February 28
Schools for Classes I to VII reopened in Odisha on Monday, February 28, after nearly two years with a week-long rapport building exercise.
The government had announced earlier that the schools would open from February 14, but various district collectors sought additional time for undertaking cleaning, bush cutting and minor repairs.
They cited the rural elections, due to which many schools would be used as polling stations. Most of the polling personnel consisted of a teaching and non-teaching staff of the school and mass education (SME) department.
The department then pushed the reopening to February 28. However, teachers had to come to school from February 14 to ensure proper cleaning and sanitisation.
Schools had held parent-teacher meetings on Saturday, with the hope of observing positive participation from students on resumption of offline classes, said Bishnupada Sethi, SME principal secretary.
The government has drawn guidelines, including a week-long rapport building exercise. Sethi said the exercise was aimed at creating a stress-free and fun-filled learning environment for school children.
The official said that children's emotional well-being needs to be taken care of by creating a happy learning environment in schools.
According to the guidelines, the teachers will prepare a fixed timetable for rapport-building exercises, which will include open discussions for sharing good memories during the pandemic, hobbies, how children felt, and what their activities were during the school closure period.
The department has also decided to organise a large-scale campaign at the village level to ensure 100% attendance in school on the reopening day of the school.
Physical classes for higher classes and other educational institutions had begun earlier. Schools were closed in March 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Caption: Children's emotional well-being needs to be taken care of by creating a happy learning environment in schools.
Last updated on 28 Feb 2022
