Delhi / Should Delhi schools & colleges reopen: Sisodia seeks suggestions from public

New Delhi: With fewer Covid-19 cases in the capital and several states reopening schools, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday invited suggestions from stakeholders, including parents and teachers, over the reopening of schools and colleges in the city.

Schools and colleges in the national Capital have been closed since March last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Classes briefly resumed for senior students in a staggered manner between January and February before being suspended again due to the fourth wave in the Capital. However, with reduced Covid-19 caseload and academic losses, many parents and students have expressed queries related to reopening of schools, Sisodia said.

“Over 500,000 parents attended the ongoing parent-teacher meetings in Delhi government schools. During my visit to many of these schools, parents and teachers expressed interest in knowing if educational institutions will reopen anytime soon. They also wanted to know that if schools were to reopen, how we would go about it. Before the government takes any decision on the matter, we want to hear suggestions from parents and teachers on the matter,” Sisodia said during a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

The education minister said parents, teachers, and students could send in their suggestions in a 100-word email to delhischools21@gmail.com and government officials would deliberate on the suggestions put forward by the people.

“We have teachers express concerns over academic losses. Even college students reach out to us saying that they have missed out on college life for over a year and their “campus life” has been limited to a room in their homes. This is why we are asking everyone to send in their suggestions to us on the matter,” he said.

Several states, including Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, have either partially reopened schools or are in the process of doing so beginning next month.

Covid-19 cases in the Capital have remained under 100 for the past few weeks with a positivity rate of less than 1% for the past two months. On April 20, the city had reported a record 28,395 cases and on April 22, the case positivity rate was 36.2%, the highest so far. Over 760,000 people were infected between April and May, and more than 13,100 died.