Schools to remain close till April 18

Srinagar: All schools, including government and private, would remain closed till April 18 in Jammu and Kashmir as COVID-19 cases continued to rise unabated in the Union Territory.
The development comes days after the J&K administration, besides other measures, imposed night curfew in the urban areas of eight districts, including Jammu and Srinagar, to check the spread of the soaring COVID-19 cases.
However, health experts claim that the spread of the virus can be curtailed by increasing CVOID-19 vaccination, closing down parks and gardens to discourage huge gatherings, besides strictly adhering to guidelines, including wearing face masks and maintaining social distance.
“In view of the continuing spike in the reported cases of infection, all schools in the UT of #JammuAndKashmir shall continue to remain closed for imparting on-campus / in-person education to the students of all classes (i.e., up to and including Class 12), till 18/04/2021,” Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha wrote on micro-blogging site twitter.
On April 4, the administration had closed schools upto 9th class for two weeks while class work in 10th, 11th and 12th standards was suspended till April 11.
“A detailed review of the current COVID-19 situation in J&K was conducted with the Financial Commissioner, Health, Administrative Secretary School Education, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Kashmir, and other officers. In the meeting the overall situation pertaining to the spread of COVID in the Union Territory and the continued trend of spike in the number of daily cases of infection in some districts of J&K was reviewed,” read a government order.
The order said that on the basis of the assessment, the State Executive Committee has ordered continued closure of all schools upto 12th class for imparting on-campus/in-person education to students till April 18. “It is clarified that this order does not prohibit the conduct of any scheduled examination, during this period, by any examination conducting body, subject to the existing COVID norms of adequate social distancing and sanitization,” it added.
The J&K administration on Thursday directed the divisional administration to impose a night curfew from 2200 hrs to 0006 hrs in the urban areas of eight districts, including five districts of Kashmir, which have witnessed spike in COVID-19 cases.
Earlier this week, the administration suspended all ‘close contact sports’ activities as a precautionary measure in view of surge in COVID-19 infection in the Union Territory. This decision came, a day after all educational institutes, including government and private schools, upto class 12th were closed in view of rise in COVID-19 cases in the Union Territory.