Tripura is contemplating reopening schools and resuming classes from June 15, after a 15-day preparation drive from June 1, state education minister Ratan Lal Nath said here on Sunday.

Nath told reporters, “Before restarting classes, we will properly sanitise all the schools and ensure safe drinking water supply for students. Classes will start from June 15 since it will take some time to sanitise them properly.”

Nath said they are yet to take a decision on when to resume classes in colleges.

The minister said gloves, hand sanitisers and masks would be provided to all 11,011 midday meal cook-cum-helpers working in the government schools.

Soaps and hand sanitisers would be also provided to students.

“In government schools, there are 11,011 cook-cum-helpers engaged to prepare midday meals. An amount of Rs 250 for gloves and masks would be given to the school principals, while another specific amount has been allotted to procure soaps and sanitisers for students,” Nath said.

“We will also provide Rs 1,500 to schools, which have a maximum of 50 students, Rs 2,500 to schools with students between 51 and 150, Rs 3,500 to schools with students between 151 and 250, while schools which have over 250 students would get Rs 5,000 for purchase of soaps and hand sanitisers,” he added.

“A total amount of Rs 1.35 crore would be spent by the government for this purpose. We have instructed the school authorities to ensure all these arrangements within June 6,” he said.

Moreover, Nath said 2,553 schools do not have running water but have a source for drinking water facilities. The department will prepare and arrange two storage tanks of 250-litres capacity, for which an additional Rs 6,000 would be spent.

Tripura has 4,398 government and government-aided schools, apart from 335 private schools, which have nearly five lakh students.