Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh on Friday announced that the new academic year for schools in the state would begin only on November 2. “We wanted to open the schools on October 5, but in view of the prevailing situation, we have now decided to re-open them on November 2,” the education minister said.

Schools have remained shut for several months now due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic. The state government initially announced September 5 as the re-opening day and later deferred it to October 5.

The education minister also informed the media that the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) has reduced the syllabus for Classes 11 and 12 by 30 per cent for both science and arts streams in view of the Covid-19-induced restrictions. “The syllabus has been reduced to compensate for the loss of working days during the 2020-21 academic year due to the Covid-19 outbreak,” he said. The number of working days for Intermediate students this academic year has been reduced to 222.

Similarly, the government is also planning to reduce the school syllabus, he added. “The schools were closed for more than five months and the children lost a lot of time. In view of this, the government is thinking to reduce the syllabus for schools too,” he said

The Covid-19 tally crossed the 7.71 lakh-mark with more than 6,319 in Andhra Pradesh.