Guwahati, The educational institutions in Assam are set to reopen next week with strict Covid-19 guidelines after over seven months of closure, officials said on Saturday.

The schools are going to open on Monday.

According to the officials of the state Education Department, the students from Class 6 to 12 would only attend the schools and a standard operating procedure (SOP) has been issued in this regard.

The officials said the students of classes 6, 8 and 12 would attend teaching on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the rest three days are reserved for class 7,9 and 11.

"All the students would not come into the schools at a time and they will attend the schools in different batches in morning and afternoon shift. Fixation of the first batch and second batch of students would be done by the head of the institution.

The first batch of the students would come at 8 a.m. and stay up to 12 noon and the second batch will come at 12.30 p.m. and stay up to 3.30 p.m.," the officials said.

The school authorities have been asked to follow the social distancing and other precautionary measures against the Covid-19.

The SOP also includes a staggered timetable for general colleges, engineering colleges, polytechnic institutions and IITs and the final decision will be taken by the college authorities.

However, online mode of education would continue for students who prefer to attend online classes rather than physically attend the schools.

The SOP said that all hostel facilities in the schools and colleges would remain suspended until further orders.

It said that the educational institutions should have to be sanitised on every weekend, preferably on every Sunday.

The teaching and non-teaching staff of all the educational institutions and cooks and helpers engaged in preparation and serving of Mid-day-Meal among the students should be medically tested for Covid-19 after 30-days and the people with symptomatic cases testing should be done immediately.