BENGALURU: Former education minister and MLC Basavaraj Horatti has written to the government to suspend its ambitious ‘Vidyagama’ project for an indefinite period, citing the fear of Covid-19 transmission.
In a letter to Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar and marked to the Department of Public instruction, Horatti said the Vidyagama scheme, through which the government has been imparting education to school students during the pandemic, should be immediately suspended as several teachers have tested positive for Covid-19.
Horatti referred to several reports to claim that even students participating in the Vidyagama scheme had tested positive. This comes days after the government directed teachers in the state to gather all local children in a pre-earmarked area, generally a house, and impart them education physically.
Horatti said this provided huge scope for the virus to transmit from one student to another or from the infected teacher to all the students or vice versa. “I request you to lay special emphasis on the lives of students, their parents and teachers, and suspend Vidyagama until the atmosphere becomes conducive enough to conduct such classes,” Horatti stated. He also demanded suitable compensation for two teachers from Belagavi who died because of Covid-19.