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Parents Of 60% Kids In BMC Schools Give Consent For Physical Classes In Mumbai

Mumbai: Parents of around 60% of over 67,000 children studying in Classes 8 to 10 at 781 civic-run schools of Mumbai have given consent for sending their children to schools from Monday for offline classes, Hindustan Times reported.

Starting today, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has given permission to reopen both private and public schools for Classes 8 to 12.

According to BMC officials, there are 67,361 students in classes 8-10 in 781 civic-run secondary high schools in Mumbai who are eligible to attend school from Monday.

A BMC official from the education department said, “The overall picture is that around 60% of parents are ready to give their consent in writing to the school, which will make their children eligible for offline classes. The written consent is in a separate phase and the system is expected to be streamlined within the next 15 days, given that it is off to a soft start from Monday.”

The BMC official said, “Many parents are not ready to send their children as festivals are approaching and they may have gone to their native places because of online classes. However, we will continue to ensure that more and more students take advantage of offline classes.”

The BMC in its SOP on Thursday had told all schools that 100% attendance is not mandatory, and parental consent is required for students to attend school. The SOP details guidelines on nine parameters including attendance, safety and COVID-19 hygiene, teaching, school management, classroom seating arrangements for teachers, students and parents.

The BMC has mandated that school managements should connect their schools with the nearest primary health centres before resuming classes in order to better deal with health emergencies among students and staff.

According to BMC officials, 21 of the total 781 secondary high schools will not operate from Monday. BMC education officer Raju Tadvi said, “Some of our schools have quarantine facilities and vaccination centres inside their premises. Hence, they will take time to start. These centres will be first shifted out of the schools and later there will be disinfection posts in which we will resume classes in these schools.”

“The estimated number of schools starting Monday is 760 and the estimated number of teachers and non-teaching staff is 3,600, followed by the estimated number of students at 38,000,” Tadvi said.

BMC officials are also approaching railway authorities to issue passes to students travelling by local train and have requested BEST to allow students to travel free of cost as per earlier arrangements.

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