Covid 19 cases: This state shut schools in 8 cities, no offline classes from today

As the Coronavirus cases continue to increase across the country, several states have taken measures to contain this virus and have again started stopping physical classes. Taking stricter view of the rising coronavirus cases, the Gujarat government on Thursday said that all the schools in eight major cities of the state will stop imparting education in their premises from March 19 to help contain the spread of the virus. Offline classes for schools in these cities will not be held till April 10, it said. These eight cities are - Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara, Surat, Bhavnagar, Gandhinagar, Jamnagar and Junagadh.   

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The decision was taken by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani during a high-level meeting held on Thursday with Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and Chief Secretary Anil Mukim, a government release said.    

At present, students from Classes 6 to 12 have been given the option of attending online classes or going to their respective schools for it. Primary schools from Classes 1 to 5 were providing education through online mode only.   

Now, all primary, secondary and higher-secondary schools in eight major cities will not provide offline education at their premises between March 19 and April 10, said the release, adding the teaching through online mode will continue.   

Schools situated in areas other than these eight cities will continue to impart offline education at their premises for the students who have opted to physically attend the classes, Chudasama said. Primary schools located in areas other than these eight cities are also allowed to conduct exams in both online and offline mode, he said.    

For the students of colleges and universities, the minister further announced that the government has decided to postpone offline exams of all the under-graduate courses between March 19 and April 10. Chudasama added that the universities will announce a new exam calendar in the coming days.  

While hostels will remain open, all the colleges and universities have been instructed to continue providing online education to their under-graduate students till April 10. He clarified that practical classes, offline classes and scheduled exams for post-graduate students will continue as per the schedule. The minister said that these decisions will be applicable to all the government as well as private universities. 

With PTI Inputs