BENGALURU: A barrage of letters landed at the education department after Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar asked schools to mediate and arrive at dates for reopening institutions. Irate parents emailed the minister on ambiguity in the government’s circular about how schools would collect information, and even requested him to reconsider opening of schools. The government is mulling reopening schools in July, and has asked managements to get parents’ opinion.
But parents expressed displeasure. “What is the criteria for the proposal? Such decisions need to be based on Covid data,” said a parent. A major challenge is transporting children, while maintaining social distancing, a private school administrator said.
D Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, was glad the government was willing to consider reopening schools and had sought stakeholders’ opinion. A source revealed managements are finding it difficult to sustain online education.The online petition on Change.org had 4,85,272 signatories.
Academic Niranjanaradhya VP welcomed the decision of the government to hear out parents. But he proposed that the government involve medical and educational experts too. While most of the discussion revolves around children from better off families, he said it is important to focus on children of labourers as there is a high chance of them dropping out of school. Niranjanaradhya said UN Covenant on Child Rights states that children’s opinion is important too.