Delhi Disaster Management Authority issues SOP for reopening of schools on Nov 1

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) permitting schools in Delhi to open for children of all grades from Monday in which precautions to maintain 50% capacity and social distancing will continue.
The SOP reiterates all precautions which had been enforced for reopening classes IX to XII, and heads of schools and institutes have been directed to consult their parent stakeholders by conducting meetings with the SMC and PTA members to finalise their plans for reopening.
It won’t be compulsory for students to report to schools, and only those with written parental consent will be allowed. Online learning will continue for those who opt out of attending school physically. Further, students, teachers and employees living in containment zones will not be permitted to report to their institutes.
Heads of schools are to prepare timetables according to the capacity of their classrooms and laboratories, with approximately 50% of students of the classroom’s capacity to be seated in it. On the basis of capacity and student strength schools can choose to stagger the school schedule to avoid crowding in classrooms and at the school entry and exit. Schools can also stagger lunch breaks. Buildings from which double-shift schools operate have to maintain a gap of at least one hour between the last group of the morning shift and the first group of the second shift.
Apart from standard precautions on sanitisation, masking and physical distancing, institutes have also been directed to maintain a ‘quarantine room’ on campus for the event that a student or teacher displays symptoms while at school.