Srinagar: Primary schools in Kashmir resumed physical classes on Monday after a gap of one year, but the attendance was low due to apprehensions about the spread of COVID-19.
Though schools in rest of the country remained shut due to Covid-19 triggered lockdown from March 2020, in Kashmir, these were shut post August 05, 2019 after the abrogation of article 370.
The schools were scheduled to resume classes for KG to 8th standard on March 8, however, the resumption of classes for KG to fifth standard was delayed by a week after staffers at a few schools tested positive for COVID-19.
On Monday, the institutions finally resumed class work for the lower primary classes while ensuring a staggered attendance of students to maintain social distancing for containing disease spread.
Officials said the students of primary schools resumed the class work on Monday. They said the attendance, however, was on the lower side in the wake of some COVID-19 positive cases being detected in some schools of the Valley over the past 14 days after the high and higher secondary schools were reopened by the administration.
Private schools had higher attendance of the students as the management of these schools bifurcated the existing classes to reduce the number of students in each class. The students of each group can attend physical classes on alternate days while they have to attend the online classes on the remaining three days of the week.
However, those students who do not wish to attend the school have the option of attending online classes for the entire period.
Only those students were allowed to attend schools who had been granted permission in writing by their parents.
Most private schools had sought no-objection certificates from the parents, absolving the school management of any blame in case of any health issues arising due to the conduct of physical classes.
Several schools have asked the students to bring along medical fitness certificates from doctors on the first day of school.
