Reopening of schools in Telangana: Here are five things to know

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday has issued an interim stay on the re-opening of social welfare and residential schools in Telangana from 1 September. The court has also said that no student must be compelled to attend school. However, both the state government and private schools are free to hold online and offline classes, it added.

The state education department has issued the following clarifications following the HC order:

1. All schools other than government residential schools, social welfare schools, and tribal welfare schools with hostel facilities are permitted to open from 1 September 2021.

2. No child shall be compelled by any school management to physically attend offline classes if his or her parent is not inclined to send the child to school.

3. It is left up to the school management to either conduct only offline, only online, or both offline and online classes.

4. Any undertaking obtained from parents by the school management absolving the school management of any liability if the child gets infected with coronavirus while in school shall not have any legal effect.

5. The director of school education is directed to lay down the SOPs to be followed by all school managements conducting classes offline within a week and give them wide publicity in print and electronic media.