The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday announced the extension of closure of all educational institutions, including schools, degree colleges, universities and technical institutions, in Uttar Pradesh for physical classes till January 30 due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation. The online classes, however, will continue.

The order on the closure of the educational institutions was issued by additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi on Saturday afternoon. The order has put an end to all speculation and rumours doing the rounds on social media over the reopening of educational institutions in the state.

The decision was welcomed by students and parents in general. They said it was absolutely necessary to discontinue physical classes as the safety of student community was important.

 A few private school associations have been demanding that physical classes should resume for students of classes 9 to 12. The government, however, refused to take note of their demand.

The students of the University of Lucknow and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU) are anxious as these institutions have not decided whether they will stick to the physical offline on-campus exam or switch to the online mode as demanded by a large majority of students cutting across all universities.

Following the government announcement, Lucknow University registrar Vinod Kumar Singh issued an order, saying the university and all its affiliated degree colleges will remain closed till January 30. The online classes, however, will continue.

Earlier, on January 5, the state government had announced that all schools till class 10 across Uttar Pradesh shall remain closed from January 6 to 16 as per chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s directives. Later, the closure was extended till January 23. On Saturday, the government ordered the closure of all institutions till January 30.