THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All arrangements are in place for the reopening of schools on November 1 and as many as 42.65 lakh students are expected to reach various school campuses across the state in two phases, General Education Minister V Sivankutty has said. At a news conference here on Saturday ahead of the school reopening, the minister said that of the 42.65 lakh students in government and aided schools, 6.07 lakh are newcomers. He added that 28,482 more children have enrolled in Class I in government and aided schools compared to the previous year.
While students in classes 1 to 7 and classes 10 and 12 will reach schools on November 1, offline classes for students in classes 8, 9 and 11 will begin on November 15. While a majority of the staff in schools have taken two doses of the vaccine, 2,609 teaching and non-teaching staff in the state are yet to be fully vaccinated. The minister advised the staff who are not fully vaccinated to stay away from schools for the time being.
As part of safety arrangements, 24,300 thermal scanners have been distributed in schools. However, disinfection and cleaning activities in 204 of the 15,452 schools in the state are yet to be completed. Also, 446 schools are yet to receive fitness certificates from local bodies.
A total of 1,474 school buses are not roadworthy, the minister noted. Sivankutty said `105.5 crore has been disbursed in advance for implementation of the noon meal scheme in schools for the 49 working days in November and December. As part of Covid prevention measures, `2.85 crore has been allocated for arranging hand wash facilities. Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK) has allocated `11 crore as school grant and another `11 crore will be disbursed in November.
“Though school grant from SSK is provided for academic purposes and for maintenance of toilet facilities, the fund can be used for Covid prevention in view of the peculiar situation at present,” he said.