BENGALURU: With classes 9 and 11 set to reopen from Monday onwards in addition to classes 10 and 12 which reopened on January 1, the education department is planning to divide the lunch break to ensure social distancing is not compromised during meals.
Commissioner of Public Instruction Anbu Kumar informed The New Indian Express that lunch break would be divided into several parts for specific classes to ensure that all the students do not come together at the same time.
This is part of the measures that the department is planning to maintain physical distancing norms and a scientific manner to follow the existing standard operating procedures in the face of the pandemic, that too with a higher number of students returning to schools.
The department has decided not to come up with a fresh set of SOPs, but to innovate with the existing ones released for the reopening of classes 10 and 12. Anbu Kumar said schools have already been approached about their capacity to accommodate students, and private schools have agreed they have enough rooms to accommodate a higher number of students spread out over more number of classrooms to ensure lesser crowding.
The department is expecting a turnout of less than 60 per cent to start with for classes 9 and 11. Officials said this would not require infrastructure to be beefed up further as several schools have primary school classrooms which are at present not in use as the children are taking lessons in the online mode.
Plans entail using these rooms to spread out the higher number of students returning to offline mode of classes. And in case, that too falls short, halls and other rooms can be put into use, a senior department official said.
Teachers being tested in b’luru
In Bengaluru, teachers of Class 9 and 11 are being tested for Covid-19. This too is in keeping with the set norms of ensuring that no infected person enters the school threatening to spread the infection. BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said that the increase in students will not impact social distancing norms in BBMP schools.