School admission begins in Odisha amidst COVID pandemic; check details

Bhubaneswar: Amidst the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, Odisha Government today commenced admission into elementary and secondary classes for the academic session 2021-22.

The School and Mass Education Department yesterday wrote a letter to all District Education Officers (DEOs) District Project Coordinators (DPCs) and Block Education Officers (BEOs) along with a set of guidelines for smooth conduct of the admission in adherence to all COVID-19 safety norms.

As per the guidelines, admission of students will be conducted from 7 AM to 9.30 AM on all working days till May 31.  And, not more than five parents would be allowed at a time for the same

Headmasters will ensure that all safety norms such as mask-wearing, social distancing and sanitization are followed strictly when parents visit the schools for admission. The officials have been advised to disseminate the instructions to parents/CRCCs through WhatsApp group formed for implementation of Odisha Shiksha Sanjog programme.

The instructions will be applicable to all Government, Government   Aided schools and all schools affiliated to BSE/ CHSE, Odisha, Madrasas affiliated to State Madrasa Board and Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas .

SOP for admission: 

1. Admissions to be carried out with full compliance to COVID-19 precautions as per H&FW Department and SRC orders.

2. Admission process is being taken up so that no child is deprived of due entitlements. It will also ensure that students are included in grade appropriate academic activities and will further remove anxiety and stress of students and parents.

3, All students from Grade 1 to IX have been promoted to the next Class for academic session 2021-22.

4. All admissions based on promotions within a school will not require presence of students/ guardians. These are rolling admissions and schools will update their admission register accordingly.

5. Wherever promotion requires student to move from one school to another, in such cases, HM of current school shall send list of such students along with mobile number of parents preferably through email/ WhatsApp etc to HM of the nearby higher class school. The school which takes admission, can take telephonic confirmation and other details as required from parents over telephone and admit the child.

6.  In case student has to change schools, parent/ guardian can obtain TC from the present school and can submit the same to the new school for admission.

7. Schools where TMCI Swab Collection Centre/ hospital (for COVID-19) are running at present, can perform the activities relating to issuing Transfer Certificate (TC) or new admission from the nearest Govt. or Aided Pryl UP/ Secondary school and this information is to be widely circulated in the area and informed to parents through phone/ WhatsApp messages.

8.  In case of any difficulty relating to TC, provisions of Section 5 of RTE Act may be followed.

9. For New Admission to Class I, information may be collected by Primary school HMs from feeder Anganwadi Centres preferably over telephone/ WhatsApp etc. The HM will contact concerned parent/guardian telephonically. It is reiterated that presence of student is not at all required for the admission process.

10.  If a parent’s presence is required in a case of new admission, HMs to ensure that social distancing, hand hygiene, mask usage and other COVID-19 precautions are strictly followed. Also, HM to ensure that each such parent, guardian is informed about date and time for arrival at school in order to avoid crowding.

11.  Hostel entrance exams, where applicable, shall not be held now.

12. Under no circumstances, admissions will be allowed in schools located within containment zones. Admission processes can be taken up after the area is declared as “Out-of-containment” zone.

13. Rationalisation and consolidation of schools are to be completed as per policy and admissions to lead schools are to be done. No admission to satellite schools, which have been identified and verified to be merged with a lead school, should be done.

14.  DEO/ DPC/ BEO will monitor the entire admission process for smooth and safe completion.