Reopening of Schools: Sgr Admin gears up to aware teachers, students on COVID SOPs

Jahangir Sofi

Srinagar, Jan 25 (KNO): Days after the government decided to re-open schools after the passage of nearly one year, the district administration Srinagar has geared up and started making students as well as the teachers aware regarding Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).

According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), a special programme-cum-awareness meeting was held on Monday at Banquet Hall Srinagar regarding the opening of schools in district Srinagar.

The awareness program was presided over by Deputy Commissioner (DC) Srinagar, Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary along side with Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Srinagar Dr. Syed Haneef Balkhi.

A presentation was given by GMC Community Science department, regarding the COVID-19 SOPs and guidelines, which needs to be followed in schools.

Pertinently, the government had ordered re-opening of schools in a staggered manner for academic activities from February 8th and March 1st 2021 respectively. All the education al institutions including Schools, Colleges and Universities remained closed from March last year in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, which claimed around 2,000 lives in Jammu and Kashmir so far.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary while speaking to the media said, “Before opening the schools, we have launched a one month long COVID-19 safety awareness programme for educational institutions, where a special training and certification programme will be given to teachers, safety and hygiene support will be given by district administration and teachers have to connect a good bond with parents for which teachers will be trained.”

“In Srinagar, we have around 1000 Schools, which include both Private and Government schools. The district administration will frame the ‘School Safety Plan’, under which interactions will be held with both parents and students,” he said.

Dr Salim HOD Community Medicine while speaking to KNO, said, “We gave the presentation about the basic hygiene, physical distancing and other COVID-19 SOPs, which needs to be followed during the opening of schools.”

Those who attended the meeting include Chief Education Officer (CEO) Education, RTO Kashmir, all Zonal Education Officers (ZEO) and Heads of Institutions—(KNO)