By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, December 29, 2021: Physical classes would resume for students of classes 1 to 5 from January 3 next in Odisha.

This was announced by School and Mass Education minister S R Dash on Tuesday, a few hours after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik directed officials to make preparations on war-footing to deal with a possible third wave of COVID-19 following the detection of at cases of Omicron variant of Coronavirus in the state.

Dash told reporters that as per the directions of the chief minister, physical mode of teaching will be resumed in about 27,000 schools in the state from January 3, 2022.

Stating that online classes will also continue, he said the students can attend offline classes in consultation with their parents or guardians.

However, in schools where the summative exam for class 10 students has been scheduled, the on-campus classes will resume from January 10, 2022, he said.

In those schools, the Matric summative assessment-1 is scheduled to be held between January 5 and 8.

Emphasising that the standard operating procedure (SOP) issued for classes 6 to 12 has to be followed by all the primary schools, the minister said that classes for 1 to 5 will be held between 9 am and 12 noon, without any break.

Dash said cooked mid-day meal will not be served to students who will be given dry ration.