Arrangements will be made in 967 schools to administer COVID-19 vaccine to students in the 15-18 age group, Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has said.
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He was speaking after a high-level meeting of General Education Department officials here on Monday to decide on COVID-19 vaccination to children and the functioning of schools in the wake of the rise in the COVID-19 case graph.
The COVID-19 vaccine will be administered in schools from Wednesday. As many as 8.14 lakh children are eligible to receive Covaxin. As per Health department figures, 51% of the children in the eligible age group have been administered the vaccine so far.
The Minister said schools with more than 500 students would be considered to set up vaccination centres. In the case of schools with less than 500 students, vaccination would continue through the existing Health department infrastructure close by.
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He reiterated that vaccines would be administered to students only with parental consent. Differently abled students who should not be vaccinated needed to present certificates from the doctors concerned.
Parental consent
Principals of schools selected as vaccination centres should convene meetings of the parent-teacher association (PTA) on Tuesday morning. Representatives of local self-government institutions, political parties, and those working in the education sector should participate in these meetings to decide on the arrangements. The same afternoon, the Deputy Directors of Education, District Education Officers, and officials of the Samagra Shiksha, Kerala, will meet to decide and entrust responsibility for each school.
The General Education Department would gather details of the number of children vaccinated each day through the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education’s Sampoorna portal, the Minister said.
There would be no major change in the functioning of schools, including timings, for Classes 10 to 12. The existing system would continue for the next couple of weeks, following which a review would be held.
On January 22 and 23, mass cleaning, as per the detailed guidelines issued earlier for school reopening, would be held in schools where students of Classes 10 to 12 would continue in-person learning. The cleaning would be held with the support of the PTA, local people, and local self-government institutions, he said.
Digital learning
KITE Victers would bring out a new timetable for digital learning for Classes 1 to 9 from Friday.
The syllabus for students in Class 10 and 12 would be completed before the year-end examinations either offline or online. The State Council of Educational Research and Training would soon publish the question paper pattern for these students.