Panaji, Mar 2 (IANS): Amid complaints about school managements making it mandatory for school and college students attending offline classes to bring along formal consent forms signed by their parents, the Education Department on Tuesday directed educational institutes to discontinue the practice.

"With reference to the above referred circular, all the heads of government, government aided, unaided pre-primary, primary, secondary, higher secondary and special schools are hereby requested not to insist parents' consent for students to attend classes physically," Director of the state Education Department Bhushan Sawaikar said in the circular issued on Tuesday.

With Covid cases in the state witnessing a sharp dip, the state government had allowed all educational institutions in the state to resume offline classes from February 21.

However, the Education Department had received complaints from parents of students studying in various schools about school managements making it mandatory to bring along consent forms signed by parents.