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Odisha
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Bhubaneswar: The State School and Mass Education Department on Wednesday extended the last date for admissions into elementary and secondary classes in view of the unabated rise in the COVID-19 cases.
As per the latest notification issued by the department, the last date has been extended till June 30, 2021.
“The date line for new admission into Elementary / Secondary Classes as well as the distribution of NT books is hereby extended till 30.06.2021 due to prevailing Covid-19 pandemic situation,” read the notice.
The department further instructed the Directors of Elementary and Secondary Education to follow the SoP issued earlier during admissions.
It is worthwhile to mention here that the Odisha School and Mass Education Department had notified the new dates for admission to Elementary and Secondary schools on April 26 this year in which it ordered to complete the admissions process before May 31, 2021.
The Standard Operating Procedure issued earlier for the admissions are as follows:
a) Admissions to be carried out with full compliance to COVID-19 precautions as per the government orders.
b) 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.
c) All students from Grade I to IX have been promoted to the next Class for academic session 2021-22.
d) 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.
e) Wherever promotion requires student to move from one school to another, in such cases, Head Master of current school, where student is studying, 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.
f) 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.
g) Schools where TMC/ Swab Collection Centres/ 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 Primary/ UP/ Secondary school and this information is to be widely circulated in the area and informed to parents through phone/ WhatsApp messages.
h) In case of any difficulty relating to TC, provisions of Section 5 of RTE Act may be followed.
i) 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 over telephone. It is reiterated that presence of student is not at all required for the admission process.
J) If a parent’s presence is required in a case of new admission, HMs to ensure that social distancing, hand hygiene, and other COVID-19 precautions are strictly /followed. The HM will also ensure that each such parent/ guardian is informed about date and time for arrival at school in order to avoid crowding.
K) Hostel entrance exams, where applicable, shall not be held now.
L) 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.
M) 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.
N) DEO/ DPC/ BED will monitor the entire admission process for smooth and safe completion.
