Bengaluru, Jan 1: Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar on Friday asked the parents to not to worry and send their wards to schools and colleges as the administration is ensuring that full preventive measures are in place.
The Minister visited various schools in Bengaluru today to review the school's preparatory measures.
Speaking to media afterwards, Minister Suresh Kumar said the online class is just an alternative. Learning is perfect only when children come to school. No pressure to come to school. Preventive measures have been taken so as not to spread the infection to school students. It's a safety center, not a school.
Parents are no longer worried. Don't worry. The new type of corona is like the old corona. It's spreading fast. Most kids can come to school from New Year's Background Monday. Parents bravely send children to school, said minister Suresh Kumar.
Schools and Pre-University (PU) colleges in Karnataka will reopen from today, January 1, for students of Class 10 and Class 12, after a gap of nearly 10 months. Students of Classes 6 to 9 will also be allowed to visit their schools for the Vidyagama programme.
Meanwhile schools and pre-university colleges across the state reopened on Friday after a span of nine-and-a-half months, several teachers and non-teaching staff may not be able to attend classes as they are not willing to get tested for COVID-19.
According to the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), all teachers and non-teaching staff have to mandatorily get tested for COVID-19 and can attend classes only after they get a negative report for the RT-PCR test.
On Friday, classes 10 and 12 will be held. The Vidyagama programme, which was stalled in October, will also be restarted for students of classes 6 to 9.
Based on the response to these classes, the State government will take a call on whether other classes can be reopened on January 15.
The state government appealed to parents to send their wards to school without any fear. “Along with academics of children, their health is also very important. So parents also should keep an eye on the health of their wards and avoid sending them if there are any symptoms,” he said, urging parents to watch out for symptoms such as cold, cough or fever in their children.
The education Minister also directed the school managements to assign one teacher to observe the health of the children. He said that if children have any of these symptoms, they should be subjected to detailed health examination.
The decision to reopen schools was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, after discussing in detail the advice given by the state’s Technical Advisory Committee for COVID-19 on reopening of schools.
The Chief Minister had previously said on social media that a decision on reopening schools for students of other classes would be taken after reviewing the situation for 15 days. Both classes 10 and second PUC are crucial as students will have to face board exams.
Students from tenth standard and second year pre-university course began arriving in school and college premises in the district on Friday after the state reopened institutions for classes. Both, government and private schools and pre-university colleges students were screened for body temperature and provided sanitisers before entering. Several anxious parents accompanied their children to schools.
However, not all students attended classes. Teaching and non-teaching staff were seen interacting with the students at the entrance, guiding them to stand in socially distant boxes and proceed to get body temperature checked before entering classrooms.
Colleges and schools sanitised classrooms a day before they were scheduled to reopen.
Schools and PU colleges in Karnataka have remained closed since March just ahead of the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Degree and engineering colleges in the state were reopened on November 17. Karnataka is planning to hold regular classes for PU first year from January 15.
Schools and colleges reopened in Kalyana Karnataka, Belagavi district, old Mysuru region, and Malnadu regions.
In some schools teachers welcomed the students with offering flowers and in some places decorated the entrance of the schools on festival mood .
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