Haryana opens schools for Classes 9 to 12 from today

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New Delhi: Schools in Haryana will reopen for Classes 9 to 12 from Friday (July 16) amid drop in COVID-19 cases. While the offline classes for 9 to 12 students will resume from today, Classes 6 to 8 will have to wait till July 23 to come to schools, an official spokesperson announced earlier. 

Schools in Haryana have been instructed to strictly adhere to all COVID-19 protocols. “Social distancing and other rules will be applicable for the students coming to the schools,” the spokesperson had told PTI. 

However, coming back to school will be voluntary. The students will be allowed to come to schools with the permission of their parents. It will not be mandatory for the students to join school and online classes will continue as before.

Meanwhile, there is no decision yet on resuming physical classes for students of standard 1 to 5.

Last week, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said that a plan should be made to reopen the educational institutions subject to strict adherence to the COVID-19 guidelines. “Given the decline in the number of COVID-19 cases, a plan should be made to reopen the schools at the earliest,” he said. 

On Thursday (July 15), Haryana reported seven new fatalities, taking the total death toll to 9,578. With 34 fresh infections, the total caseload mounted to 7,69,417, as per officials. The total number of active cases in the state currently stands at 838. 

(With agency inputs)