By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, January 2, 2022: Odisha Government has put on hold the reopening of Primary Schools in the state owing to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Primary Schools for students of Class 1 to 5 were to reopen from 3rd January. The decision is expected to impact a total of 27,000 primary schools that are spread across the state.

According to the statement issued by the I & PR department of the State Government, the decision to postpone reopening of primary schools for offline classes was taken based on feedback shared by parents.

School and Mass Education Minister Sameer Ranjan Dash issued a statement saying “As per our previous decision, nodal officers had started visiting schools across the State. As a lot of parents and guardians expressed their reservations and owing to rise in Covid-19 cases, the State government has decided to postpone the reopening of primary schools.”

Besides parents, the state government also consulted health experts and other key stakeholders before taking the final decision. The decision was also forced in part after Odisha reported 424 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours.

While the Odisha Government has decided to revoke its decision to reopen primary schools in the state for physical classes, the arrangement of offline classes for higher class students is slated to continue as it is. This means that Physical lectures for Class 6 to 10 students are going to continue as they were being held earlier with complete adherence to COVID-19 guidelines.

In addition to this, the summative assessment examination for class 10 students will be conducted as per schedule by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) from 5th January 2022 onwards.

Earlier last year, Odisha Schools had reopened for senior classes in October and November, 2021.