“Shiksha Mantri Shri @dpradhanbjp reviewed the status of schools reopening across the country with senior officials of Department of School Education & Literacy. He also took stock of the roadmap for vaccinating all teaching & non-teaching staff in schools by the month of September,” the union education ministry said.

“GoI is prioritising vaccination of teaching and non-teaching staff in schools across India to ensure a safe environment for reopening of schools,” the ministry added.

The move comes a day after union school education secretary Anita Karwal asked the states and union territories to vaccinate all teachers and staff with at least one dose of vaccines in September, and those who have already got first dose should be vaccinated fully within this month.

Karwal held the meeting with state education and health officials over school safety, and asked health and education authorities in states to quickly devise a district-level roadmap to achieve the results. The education ministry’s regular review comes as most states reopen physical schools in a staggered way.

“During the discussion Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy (DOSEL) advised all the states and UTs to get the 1st dose of vaccination completed for all the teaching and non-teaching staff during the month of September 2021 and those teaching and non-teaching staff who have already received 1st dose should be followed up rigorously for the 2nd dose,” an education ministry spokesperson had said Tuesday.

Further the secretary advised health and education secretaries of all states and UTs to jointly design a roadmap at the district level for vaccination of all the teaching and non-teaching staff. Department of School Education and Literacy is also obtaining the information on vaccination of teachers on a weekly basis from states and UTs through tracker, the ministry spokesperson informed.

India is home to at least 9.4 million schoolteachers and several millions more non-teaching staff. Though the Centre did not declare teachers as frontline workers, some states immunized teachers on a priority considering their role in resuming physical classes.