Mumbai: Are schools worried about fourth wave?

With Coronavirus infections shooting up once more just ahead of the beginning of the academic year, city schools said they will reopen with all protections in place, making students' safety their top priority. While a majority of them are scheduled to reopen on June 9, 13 and 15, schools are hoping the school education department and the BMC will issue fresh Covid guidelines soon to make it easier for them to implement them.

Sshool education minister Varsha Gaikwad said, "We're taking stock of the Covid situation across the state, cases are rising, but schools will reopen on June 15 with Covid-appropriate protocols. Soon, new SOPs will be issued to schools. Further decisions will be made in light of the situation." A few of the schools mid-day spoke to shared their plan for the coming days.

"Our school has re-opened on June 3 for the next academic year after the summer break. We are recommending vaccination for students who are eligible, not making it compulsory. We are emphasising students, and staff wear masks and follow social distancing. However, on the ground, making sure students follow social distancing is going to be a tough task," said Hanif Kanjer, founder-director, Rustomjee Cambridge International School & Junior College.

Students at a school in Nehru Nagar, Kurla, in January when schools had reopened after a Covid break. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Rupa Roy, principal of Dadar's Balmohan Vidyamandir said, "Our school reopens on June 13 like most of the schools. Yes, [we] will be making masks compulsory. In fact, we had never discontinued masks in the school. Students were allowed to unmask themselves only during sports activities. Many parents themselves got their wards vaccinated, besides that even we conducted a vaccination camp for our students on our premises with the help of BMC." She added, "I hope the state government comes out with guidelines to be followed considering the rising number of cases, schools issuing directions otherwise would look arbitrary."

Prajodh Rajan, co-founder and Group CEO, Lighthouse Learning (formerly known as EuroKids Group), said, "With schools reopening, measures are being undertaken to ensure the safety of all our students as well as the staff, in compliance with all the guidelines laid down by the government. Additionally, we have developed a 3S approach to safe preschool resumption emphasizing savdhani (precautions), sayyam (patience), and swasthya (health). Our staff is fully vaccinated and, we have partnered with leading international hygiene, safety and security specialists like BVQI, Hicare, and Diversey to ensure that our Covid safety protocols are comprehensive."

"We have a safety advisory panel with prominent healthcare experts like Dr Chandrakant Lahariya on board, to ensure that all necessary protocols are in place for safe school reopening in the new academic year. We heavily rely on parents' support to drive vaccination for our students. Our campuses conducted multiple vaccination campaigns for the age-eligible students. Since all students are not eligible for vaccines yet, we continue to follow the safety measures for overall wellbeing," Rajan added.

HSC board exam results to be announced today

The results for HSC or Std XII board examination will be declared across Maharashtra on June 8 (today) at 1 pm. Students can access their results on msbshse.co.in, hscresult.11thadmission.org.in, hscresult.mkcl.org, mahresult.nic.in

This was the first offline board exam since the pandemic was declared in March 2020. The HSC practical and oral exams began on February 14 and completed on March 3. The state board administered the examination for the complete syllabus; however, due to the second wave in the state, pupils were assessed through internal evaluation last year.

A total of 14.85 lakh candidates appeared for the HSC exam from across the state this year. This includes more than six lakh from the science stream and over 4 lakh each from Arts and Commerce streams. Mumbai division (which includes Thane and Raigad) alone had 3.35 lakh candidates.

Last year, as many as 99.63 per cent of the 12 lakh students passed the exam. This is the highest ever pass percentage by the Maharashtra Board. In 2020, out of 14,20,575 students who had appeared for the exam, as many as 12,81,712 cleared the exam. The pass percentage was at 90.66 per cent.