Schools in Assam and few other states have partially reopened today after more than five months of lockdown enforced to contain the spread of coronavirus.

After Central Government gave its nod to partially reopen schools and colleges from September 21, many states have permitted the educational institutes to reopen from today, including Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Haryana, Nagaland and Madhya Pradesh.

Assam schools will reopen for class 9 to class 12 students only amid strict guidelines issued by the state government.

Classes will resume from today for the next 15 days following which the situation will be reviewed again. While all government schools will reopen, private institutes have been asked to take a call on whether they want to resume classes.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were issued by the secondary education department on Wednesday to maintain physical distancing norms and other precautionary measures against the coronavirus outbreak. Each classroom will not have more than 20 students at a time. Besides this, school timing will be divided in two batches: from 9 am to 12 noon, and 1 pm to 4 pm.

The classes will be held on a rotational basis with class 11 and class 12 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while students from Class 9 and Class 10 on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The reopening of schools and colleges is being done as per detailed SOPs laid out by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well as the State governments.