Chandigarh, June 4: Schools in Haryana are set to re-open from July, following a nearly four-month closure due to COVID-19 lockdown. State Education Minister Kanwar Pal announced on Thursday that the government has decided to resume school operations from next month, in a phased manner. All classes will be divided into at least two batches to ensure social distancing, he said. North Korea Reopens Schools Months After Coronavirus Lockdown, Children Returned to Their Classrooms in Face Masks.

The first set of classes would resume for students of 10th, 11th and 12th standards. Age-wise, the pupils in the above grades are most mature and expected to ensure maximum adherence to the safety norms. Subsequently, the classes would resume for students in grades 6th to 9th, followed by 1st to 5th.

Each division of a class would be further divided into at least two sub-sets to maintain social distance among students who would be part of the classroom, the Minister said. He further added that only 50 percent of the school staff would initially return to work.

"Schools to reopen in July in phased manner, starting with classes 10-12, followed by classes 6-9 and 1-5. For social distancing, schools to function at 50 percent strength. In class of 30 students, 15 will come in morning and 15 in evening or alternate days," Pal said.

In the "Unlock" guidelines released by Home Ministry on May 30 - it was stated that schools, colleges and other educational institutions could be resumed during phase II of the strategy to exit from lockdown. The phase II of Unlock plan will come into effect from July. The state governments, however, will take the final call depending on the local-level transmission of COVID-19.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 04, 2020 01:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).