Officials of the primary and secondary education department, whose expert committee has recommended that schools be reopened in the first week of August, are waiting for the government, or more specifically, the Chief Minister to give a green signal for offline classes.

The department is yet to get a minister. Sources from the department said experts are divided whether the delay in the decision to reopen schools is due to the lack of a minister. Officials have placed the proposal of the expert committee before Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.

"The Chief Minister has to take a decision or delegate the decision making to someone else (principal secretary)," said a top offical from the department. Meanwhile, a rise in the number of cases and an impending third wave were also suggested as reasons for the delay.

"At present, 90 per cent of parents are unwilling to send their children to school even if they open," said M Shakeel, president of Voice of Parents, a parents' association. He said the government should fill the technology gap for students by utilising department funds instead of promising to dole out Rs 2 lakh per student affected by COVID-19 as insurance. He said the government should proactively participate in initiatives that ensure education reaches students through television.

"Children are the wealth of the nation, and cannot be risked. Their survival is of primary importance," Shakeel said. Educationist Niranjanaradhya VP iterated the need to consider the education sector as an emergency sector, just like health. "The need to reopen schools, because of the number of students slipping into malnutrition, child labour, and girl students dropping out, cannot be emphasised more," he said.

"It is time (for the government) to make a decision in the best interest of children and with all precautionary measures," he said. President of Karnataka State High School Teachers' Association, Manjunath H K said teachers are awaiting a circular on reopening of schools, and there is no clarity why there is a delay in the decision — whether it was lack of a minister that delayed opening of schools, despite the dip in fresh cases, and the technical committee approving an August first week reopening. KAMS general secretary Shashi Kumar also agreed that the presence of an education minister would have expedited the process of approval, and requested the government to reopen schools before the third wave."