Bengaluru, Dec 3: Graded opening of schools from January may be considered after carefully assessing the pandemic situation in the last week of December, the state’s Covid-19 technical advisory committee (TAC) told the government.
If the government accepts this recommendation and the pandemic situation is favourable, then schools will first reopen for classes 10 and 12. “Classes 9 and 11 can follow later before a decision is taken on other classes,” the TAC has recommended.
Dr V Ravi, virologist and member, TAC, said: “Given that classes 10 and 12 have board exams, we recommended that they be given priority. After that, we must wait and see for a few weeks how the situation unfolds and then reopen other classes, starting with the senior grades.”
The government’s latest draft Covid-19 advisory, prepared to tackle a second wave of infection based on the TAC’s recommendations, has also proposed that all teachers, students and anganwadi workers undergo Covid-19 tests once every two weeks. The government has been advised to conduct tests of pooled samples (1:5).
“The whole of December can be used to revise curriculum, planning examinations and preparing classrooms for Covid-19 compliance; providing hot water, procuring masks, disinfectants, sanitisers, etc. In the meantime, the effect of opening of colleges from November 17 will be known and this will help further planning in this regard,” the TAC’s draft reads.
The government will also prepare hostels — rooms, bath and toilets, food mess, etc — in December. Further, educational institutions will be among the clusters where contact tracing, community based active surveillance, ILI & SARI surveillance will be conducted on priority.
“Surveillance in prisons, long-term care facilities, educational institutions, offices, etc… cluster investigations in high-risk settings like urban slums, weddings and closed spaces must be taken up,” the draft reads.
While independent educationists have been batting for reopening of schools, the government had, earlier this month, indicated that it may not happen this year. In fact, the government has claimed that most of the syllabus for class 10 has already been covered through TV classes.
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