Bihar schools, colleges, universities to reopen with 50% attendance, announces Nitish Kumar

The Bihar government today, 5 July announced that colleges and universities will reopen with 50 percent attendance. The state government made this announcement after reviewing the COVID-19 situation in the state post easing curbs as cases of the deadly virus continue to decline.Informing students on social media, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar tweeted saying that universities, colleges, technical educational institutions, government training institutes, and schools for classes 11 and 12 will open with 50 percent attendance.Further in his tweet, he also updated that the state government will make special arrangements for vaccination of adult students, teachers, and staff of educational institutions.Meanwhile, online teaching will continue in schools for the remaining classes, as per state government orders. Also, other coaching centres and educational institutes have not been permitted to reopen.For the unversed, schools have remained closed since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions across the country. However, most of the scheduled entrance exams, competitive tests will be conducted in the state as per COVID-19 safety protocols and rules that have been issued by the central government.Furthermore, the Bihar government has asked all government and non-government offices to resume work normally. The chief minister also asserted that only vaccinated visitors will be able to enter the office.Earlier on 29 June, Bihar Education Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary notified that the reopening of educational institutes in the state will be done in phases. In the first phase, universities and colleges will reopen. Then in the second phase, high schools will reopen and in the last phase, primary schools and middle schools will reopen.The vaccination drive began on 16 January, 2020 in Bihar. To date, around 1.72 crore people have been vaccinated in the state. Out of which, 1.48 crore people have received the first dose while 24.18 lakh have got both doses.