BENGALURU: “We have been told to wash our hands, and I brought my own water bottle from home,” said a student of government lower primary school in Bengaluru on Monday. The state government opened school for classes one to five across the state, more than two months after it started phased reopening of schools in August 21. With this, classes from one to 12 are back in offline mode.
A happy group of students from a government school in Dakshina Kannada was seen cheering when asked about their response to reopening of schools. Students were seen in close proximity to each other both inside and outside the schools, on streets and in buses. However Chandrashekhar Nugli, secretary, Karnataka State Primary School Teachers Association, denied any violation of Covid norms.
Sania M, a Class 5 student from a government school in the city, was glad to be back, though her mother pushed her. Janet, a class 9 student of a private school, said, “As I am in Class 9, my mother does not want me to have a discontinuity when I enter Class 10.”
However, private schools are split. While a segment has decided to postpone offline classes for younger students, others have opened. Shashi Kumar, general secretary of Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said that a number of schools have opened offline. He agreed that maintaining social distancing is a challenge in government and private schools, but the latter had some restrictions and infrastructure in place to ensure adherence.
A bulk of private schools are considering going back to online mode completely as parents are demanding it and hybrid classes are impractical considering the limited number of teachers, said Mansoor Ali Khan, general secretary, Management of Independent CBSE Schools Association. “In private schools, just 20 per cent of students are opting for offline classes,” he said, and added that unless schools see at least 75 percent offline attendance, they may continue with online classes.
Govt schools attendance % age on Monday
Class 1 54.78
Class 2 49.38
Class 3 47.16
Class 4 48.26
Class 5 47.90