West Bengal To Reopen Primary Schools From February 16, Relaxes Night Curfew Timings

WB School Reopening: According to fresh guidelines released on Monday, night curfew timings have been relaxed by an hour

Students are seen engaged in physical activity at an open air primary school in Kolkata (Getty Images)

New Delhi: With Covid-19 cases seeing a steady dip, the West Bengal government has decided to reopen all primary and upper primary schools from February 16. Physical classes for the lower sections will recommence after a gap of two years.

Offline sessions for students of classes 8 to 12 and colleges had resumed on February 3. Amid a spike in Covid-19 cases primarily driven by the Omicron variant, Bengal had closed schools and colleges from January 3.

According to fresh guidelines released on Monday, the School Education Department will issue a standard operating procedure for schools to ensure that Covid-related protocols are followed after the schools reopen.

Last week, the Bengal government had launched open-air 'neighbourhood schools' for students of pre-primary and primary classes. Known as "Paray shikshalay", the schools cater to the students up to Class 7.

The Mamata Banerjee-led government also allowed the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) centres, better known as anganwadis, to reopen. 

West Bengal Govt permits reopening of all primary and upper primary schools from Feb 16

Night curfew to remain in force between 12 midnight and 5 am pic.twitter.com/q6VpoNq5q7

— ANI (@ANI) February 14, 2022

Night curfew timings have been relaxed by an hour and will be in effect from midnight to 5 am.

"The movement of all vehicles and people will be restricted from 12 midnight to 5 AM. Only essential and emergency services will be allowed," the notice said.

West Bengal has also withdrawn the ban on incoming international flights effective from Tuesday. However, international passengers either have to be fully vaccinated or go through an RT-PCR test within 72 hours from flight departure, a statement said.

Bengal has been witnessing a steady dip in daily Covid-19 numbers. On Sunday, the state reported 512 new cases of coronavirus.