Telangana High Court Allows School Reopening From September 1 Except Residential Schools

The High Court also directed that no child studying in any class shall be compelled by any school management to physically attend offline classes, if his or her parent is not inclined to send the child to school.

The Telangana High Court on Tuesday permitted reopening of schools from September 1 while staying the physical reopening (starting of offline classes) of government residential schools. The High Court also directed that no child studying in any class shall be compelled by any school management to physically attend offline classes, if his or her parent is not inclined to send the child to school. A bench, comprising Telangana High Court Acting Chief Justice M S Ramachandra Rao and Justice T Vinod Kumar, issued a series of directions to the government while hearing a PIL which challenged the government’s decision to reopen schools from September 1 in physical mode. On August 23, the Telangana government decided to reopen all private and government educational institutions (resume physical classes) in the state from September 1 by following various (COVID-19 norms) precautionary measures. The High Court in its directions on Tuesday said all schools other than Government Residential Schools, Social Welfare Schools and Tribal welfare Schools with hostel facilities are permitted to open (starting of offline classes) from September 1. The stay will be in place for four weeks on such schools and the government was asked to file a counter affidavit and inform the court on the number of Government and Social Welfare Schools in the state and how many of them are with hostels.