An article published by a news website has been doing the rounds on social media that schools will not reopen until December. The article claims that this decision of not reopening schools has been made by the Central Government. It became viral and was shared widely on social media. A screenshot of the article is given below:
Now let us test the veracity of the claims in the article. The article was published on August 11th, 2020 on a website with the address Simplicity.in. Schools have been closed since mid march as a precautionary measure against the COVID-19 outbreak by the government. Although many relaxations have been ordered by the government since then but no decision has yet been taken regarding reopening of schools. As per Unlock 3.0 Guidelines issued by the Central Government, schools were to remain shut until 31st August. No further guidelines have been issued by the government till date.
Confirming our analysis, the Press Bureau Of India has also published a clarification on it’s fact check twitter handle (@PIBFactCheck) that this news was fake. The tweet further specified that no such decision has been made by the Central Government[1].
[1] https://twitter.com/PIBFactCheck/status/1293834114798202880