Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty announced additional guidelines for resumption of offline classes in schools from Monday.
Pre-primary and classes from 1 to 9 will will begin functioning in batches till afternoon from Monday by adhering to already released guidelines. Classes 10 to 12 will continue lessons as at present till February 19, the Minister said at a press conference here on Sunday.
From February 21, all students in classes 1 to 12 will attend school from morning till evening. There will be no batches, so as to complete portions at the earliest, and the usual school timetable will be followed. All Saturdays in February and March, except for public holidays, will be working days.
With the government giving nod for functioning of creches and kindergarten, pre-primary classes too will function till the afternoon from Monday. They will function from Monday to Friday, with 50% attendance each day.
Portions
The Minister said portions for public examinations for classes 10 and 12 will be completed by February 28, and followed up by revision classes. SSLC and Plus Two (higher secondary and vocational higher secondary) model examinations will get under way on March 16. The timetable will be published soon.
Year-end examinations will be held for classes 1 to 9. The timetable will be published later. Digital classes for students from class 1 to 9 will be held in the afternoon.
School-level school resource group (SRG) will meet every Saturday to discuss completion of portions and decide ways to ensure that students achieve necessary learning outcomes. Depending on the performance in the model examinations, schools should devise and implement academic support for students to appear for the public examinations. Special action plan should be drawn up to aid students who were academically backward. Individual support should be provided to students to bridge learning gaps. Special attention should be given in the case of differently abled students. Activities should be taken up at the school level to increase students’ confidence and reduce their mental stress.
Teachers should continue to adopt the hybrid model, and provide digital/online classes and supporting activities as per requirement. The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) should provide related support.
Subject plan
SSLC and Plus Two teachers must prepare a plan for each subject. They should submit a report, including the portions covered for the public examinations, through the heads of the institutions to the District Education Officer and Regional Deputy Director, respectively, every Saturday. The codified report has to be submitted to the Director of General Education every Monday.
Local self-government institutions, particularly district panchayats, will implement projects for SSLC and higher secondary students to support them academically. School and class parent-teacher associations should meet in each class. In case of students, particularly those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, who do not attend school, teachers along with school authorities should take necessary steps to bring them to school.
It is preferable that students come to school in uniform to help identify students and for bus concession. A decision on grace marks for SSLC examinations will be taken after the exam board meeting.
The government decision on schools was applicable to all schools, the Minister said.
While student vaccination had slowed down for some time, 84.4% public school students had been vaccinated till Saturday as per available figures, Mr. Sivankutty said.
