Mumbai: Higher Education Minister Uday Samant confirmed that the Maharashtra state government is expected to take a final decision about reopening of colleges in the state by end of this month.

The Minister confirmed the update on Thursday during a meeting with college principals and other senior officials. During the meeting Samant also informed that currently, the higher education department officials have been asked to take response and pandemic review from officials deployed at Zilla Parishad and District levels.

While the preparations are in the line for reopening of colleges in Maharashtra but the final decision will be taken only after meeting with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Samant informed. As part of the preliminary procedure, officials have also been trained to review the condition of colleges and schools that were being used as quarantine centres during the pandemic in the next 10 days and submit a report on the same.

The Minister will conduct discussions with all district administrations in few days to chalk out the final plan for reopening of colleges.

Earlier, the state had given approval for reopening of schools for Class 9 to 12 students in Maharashtra. However, the final decision on reopening of schools in state was given to local authorities, who were allowed to reopen them after systematically reviewing the prevailing COVID-19 situation. In line with this, multiple districts Maharashtra have reopened schools in December and January.

On Thursday, School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad declared schedule for SSC and HSC Board Examinations.

Also read: Maharashtra SSC, HSC 2021 exam schedule out; check dates here