Districts having 100+ Covid cases per day to shut down offline classes in Schools from Class VI to VIII

With the second wave of the Coronavirus engulfing the whole nation under its deadly grip, educational institutions like schools and colleges have started to become hotbeds of Covid infection. Especially in Assam, protests demanding all kinds of offline academic activities to be closed down to curb the infection rate in the state have been going on for quite some time now. Now today, the Education Department of the Assam Government has officially asked all the districts which are reporting 100+ Covid cases per day to close down all form of offline classes of Class VI to Class VIII throughout the state until May 8. The decision has been taken keeping in view the alarming rate at which the Covid positive cases is rising in the state.

According to the official notification issued by the Assam Government’s Education Department, given the present scenario of Covid-19 pandemic, the Government in Education Department has authorized the Deputy Commissioners of the Districts, where active Covid cases have crossed the 100 mark on a particular day, to close down classes from Class VI to VIII in the Educational Institutions (both Govt and Non-Govt.) till May 8, 2021, with immediate effect. However, online classes have to be made available for the concerned students as the academic schedule is already lagging in many aspects.

This order has been issued in continuation of the earlier notification No.ASE 01/2020/P1-11/142 dated April 17, 2021, regarding the closure of classes from Class I to V including Pre-Primary classes in Educational Institutions (Govt. and Non-Govt.) in the Districts where the active Covid cases had crossed the 100 mark. A few weeks back, 11 students of the Jorhat’s DCB Girls’ college had tested Covid positive, which came hardly a few days after Assam Education Minister and NEDA Chief Himanta Biswa Sarma had made a statement to the media remarking that there’s no need to wear any mask because there’s no Corona in Assam.

Even in the last couple of weeks, two teachers of the Silchar Collegiate School, one being the school’s Headmistress, were tested Covid positive which sent a wave of panic among the students’ fraternity.