With the Covid-19 pandemic and the number of active cases in India subsiding, offices, educational institutions, hotels, restaurants, bars, gardens, and all other public places and recreational places are re-opening.
Not just that, domestic airlines have started running at full capacities, while international air travel began last month, after a hiatus of 2 years, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Amid all these developments and the country’s stride towards the pre-pandemic era, the Gujarat government has told the state high court earlier this week that physical attendance for students in schools under the Gujarat education department is not compulsory for the academic year 2021-22.
No Physical Attendance Compulsory For Schools Under Gujarat Board
In a circular issued on February 18, the Gujarat education department made it compulsory for students of educational institutions under the board to attend offline classes, starting February 21, meaning 100% physical attendance was mandated.
It read, “All schools and colleges, including government, private and grant-in-aid across all boards under the aegis of the Gujarat education department, will be reopened fully for offline classes with no online classes permitted from February 21.”
Against this, a resident of Gandhinagar, Abhilash Thankayathil Muraleedharan filed a public interest litigation before the Gujarat High Court.
Furthermore, Government pleader Manisha Shah submitted that all the students studying in educational institutions affiliated to the Gujarat board, will not have a mandatory rule of physical attendance for the academic year 2021-22.
She submitted this before a division bench, adding that the said matter is now open to the parents’ discretion. The submission and her statement was placed on the court’s record.
The Gujarat High Court has now relisted the matter for June 7, 2022, granting liberty to the petitioner to move before the vacation bench of the court if need arises.
Besides, the chief Justice Bench, comprising of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice AJ Shastri, they have noted that as other education boards like CBSE and ICSE haven’t been presented with a chance of making their submissions on whether classes can be continued in hybrid mode, opting for online classes at the discretion of parents and schools at present will only be available to state board schools.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.