Gandhinagar, Feb 14 : Amid decline in the new Covid cases in Gujarat, the state government on Monday decided to allow Anganwadi centres, pre-schools and kindergarten to re-open from Thursday (February 17), officials said. "Chief minister Bhupendra Patel took the decision to re-open them.... For the first time in the last two years of the pandemic, pre-schools and anganwadis will be re-opened," Gujarat Education Minister Jitu Vaghani said. The state on Sunday reported 1,274 Covid-19 cases and 13 deaths, raising its tally to 12,15,290 and the toll to 10,808. As per the state health department, Gujarat had 14,211 active cases as of Sunday. All the educational institutions were asked to stop conducting offline classes at their premises after March 2020 as the Covid-induced lockdown was imposed in Gujarat. However, as the situation improved over time, the state government has allowed schools and colleges to resume offline classes but pre-schools and Anganwadis (rural child care centres) remained shut. "From February 17, these institutions can start imparting education at their premises by following the SOPs issued earlier. Officials handling Anganwadi operations and owners of pre-school classes need to make necessary arrangements to restart the education," the Education Minister said. "The state government is preparing an action plan to overcome the issue of children facing loss in the academic years as they will take admission in standard 1 without getting any pre-school education," the minister said. /IANS