The Karnataka state government had decided to start regular classes for grades 6 to 8 from February 22. However, this is not applicable to regions around the Karnataka-Kerala border and in Bengaluru city. The decision was announced by the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Suresh Kumar S, after a meeting with the Technical Advisory Committee on Tuesday.
Kumar said that classes for schools in Bengaluru and those neighbouring Kerala will be held from grade VIII. Teachers and students coming from Kerala will have to test for COVID-19 and on producing a negative report, can attend offline classes. The said grades were opened for Vidyagama classes, with sparse attendance, and will now join the higher grades in resuming regular classes.
Kumar said that a video conference will be convened for all district administrators on Wednesday to discuss and inform them about monitoring the provisions and measures to be taken for the reopening of schools. At present, the government has begun regular classes for grades 8 to 12. In the meeting with TAC on Monday, the minister is said to have discussed CBSE too having given out a circular about starting the new academic year 2021-22 in April. The Karnataka government has decided to begin the academic year for 2021-22 on July 15. They also discussed reopening of schools in various states -- class 9 and above in Delhi, class 10 and above in Kerala, class 9 and up in Odisha, class 6 and above in Haryana, class 5 and above in Maharashtra, class 1 onwards in Punjab.
There was also the fear of a second wave due to the resurgence of the virus in neighboring Kerala. Two apartment complexes and a nursing college had a large number of cases in Bengaluru, he noted.
Classes 1 to 5
Whether grades 1-5 will be resumed this year will be discussed with the Technical Advisory Committee by February 25, Kumar told media persons. There are two analysis reports coming to the department by then -- virulence of the new wave of the virus will be known and the survey report (of dropouts) will be out. He said there was a strong demand to start classes from grade one across the state, by parents, SDMC members and educationists. He felt perturbed about the research results by Azim Premji University on regression in learning due to the prolonged closure of schools.HostelsSocial welfare and backward classes departments will open their hostels.
At present, 70,000 pre-matric students have been admitted, and with the classes from grade 6-8 opening up, the numbers are bound to increase, he said.TransportKumar said that the Transport department and various transport corporations were approached to increase the number of trips as per requirement for students. In the previous week alone, about 250 new routes have opened and more than 1500 trips have run, he said. Random COVID19 test COVID19 tests are being held for children at random in schools and the health department is overseeing this in the whole state, he said
