Nagaland: Classes to reopen from February 2021

Kohima: The Nagaland government had decided to open schools for students of class VI onwards in the state from February 2021. The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio in Kohima on Friday.

The state department of school education is going to take necessary action to resume the classes of schools in a phased manner. It will also prepare a list of standard operating procedures along with the health department to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus among students and teaching and non-teaching staff once regular classes resume.

The Nagaland government had also directed the Nagaland University (NU) to conduct the semester examinations, preferably online from January 18.

The university will resume classes by the second week of February 2021.

The new academic session for the technical institutions in Nagaland is likely to begin from February 25 next year.

The state government had asked these institutes to begin both offline and online classes by maintaining all COVID-19 protocols.

Earlier in September, the government had decided to partially open the schools on 'voluntary basis' for whoever was in need of academic guidance. This partial reopening was also allowed for skill or entrepreneurship training institutions.

Chief Secretary Temjen Toy had said that up to 50% of teaching and non-teaching staff, residing outside containment zones, were permitted to be called to the schools at a time for online teaching, tele-counselling and other related works. The skill or entrepreneurship training was permitted in National Skill Training Institutes, Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), short term training centres which were registered under the National Skill Development Corporation or State Skill Development Missions- all of these were subjected to strict adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).

Prior to this, schools across the country have been closed since March due to COVID-19 pandemic. Classes were held online and links for online study material were sent via Whatsapp, email and SMS.

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