School reopening: Education Ministry advises bridge courses

With schools reopening across several states, the education ministry has issued fresh guidelines. It has asked all schools to focus on 'bridge courses' instead of teaching new course material for the grade and also do away with detention for children in classes 5 and 8 for this year to prevent dropouts.

The new protocol also paves the way for resuming the physical school mode. It has eased the norm of requiring parental consent for sending children to physical schools or permitting them to study from home.

Following inputs from the health ministry and based on the home ministry directions, the education ministry has revised its 2020 SOPs on the subject and circulated them across states.


While previous guidelines asked all states and schools to ensure that parental consent is taken before a child attends physical school, the new protocol has left it to the state government to decide if such a consent is necessary.

Previous guidelines also permitted that parents preferring to have children study at home be allowed to do so. The new guidelines have left the decision to states.

The other major area of concern has been the learning loss that children have incurred due to the pandemic.

The education ministry's SOP said the student support on reopening is paramount and hence a school readiness module/bridge course must be prepared classwise. Grade-related teaching should only begin after the bridge course is completed so that students are able to readjust to the academic pace. This is especially for children who may have been left without any academic access during the pandemic. Large-scale remedial and learning enhancement programmes have been recommended to prevent exacerbation of 'learning inequality' caused by the pandemic. The protocol further advises identification of various learning levels among students, especially in junior classes, so as to ensure timely intervention.