BENGALURU: Mamatha, a class 10 student from a government high school in Karnataka's Hebbal who got her first jab on Wednesday, January 5, 2022, said she is set to go to school the next day. “Exams are drawing close,” she said. Her school, like several others in the state, was asked to send the younger kids home for online classes.
Mamatha is among the board examination students who are now attending regular and preparatory classes.
The Karnataka government has declared that offline classes for all students in Bengaluru city (Bengaluru north and south educational districts) -- except classes 10, 11 and 12, medical and paramedical -- will stop from January 6 to 19 or until further notice. A missive in this regard was issued by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) on Wednesday. These students will have online or alternative learning mechanisms.
However, there are concerns that online classes will be implemented in other parts of the state too, even though nothing of the like has been announced till Wednesday evening.
A class 11 student from a private aided college in Davangere expressed fears that online classes would be resumed. “If there is no choice, the ideal condition would be to at least have hybrid and offline classes from time to time,” he said, rueing that the previous year was evidence for poor learning. For this academic year, just 40 per cent of the syllabus is completed, he added.
Lokesh Talikatte, the State unit president of Recognised Unaided Private Schools Association (RUPSA), Karnataka, welcomed the decision to continue schools for schools that are not in Bengaluru. “However in Bengaluru, students of just classes 6 to 12 could go to school for four months. For others, it was for a month and a half,” he said.
“COVID affecting education is a matter of concern,” he said, expecting the government to consider the lapses last year where students did not have gadgets, and this year too without preparation for online classes. “Therefore 50-60 lakh students who are studying under the state syllabus and government institutes have no provision for online classes.”
The DPI has instructed schools in Bengaluru (as classes 10-12 will continue offline) as in other districts (where all classes are to be continued offline) via the Deputy Directors of Public Instruction, to follow the COVID guidelines issued by DSERT in August 2021. Schools in districts outside of Bengaluru are also asked to follow their respective district administration's protocol from time to time.