Karnataka Government to resume schools for classes 9 to 12

Bengaluru, 10 Aug 2021 [Fik/News Sources]: Among the first major decisions announced by Karnataka’s chief minister, Basavaraj Bommai, after he took charge in the state, was the opening up of schools for offline classes for students of Classes 9 to 12.

Primary and secondary school education minister, B C Nagesh, who took over from Suresh Kumar after a cabinet reshuffle, said: “The Chief Minister had several meetings with the concerned people - task force, doctors and educationalists. After considering all their opinions, seeing the future of the students - schools have to be started. So we are taking all extra care.”

Details of what schools need to do will be released soon. The minister said, “Details of SOPs for the schools will be released in 2 days.”

The government is looking at the status of primary schools also. “We are looking at opening primary schools also,” the minister said.

“Many pediatricians have said small children will not be affected by the third wave of Covid. So we are seriously thinking of it. There are some practical difficulties. Coming to the school, and for small children to follow SOPs may be difficult. But we are seriously thinking how to start the schools. By the end of this month there will be a technical committee that is going to sit with the chief minister. Then we will decide when to start.”

Karnataka was hit very badly by the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. After case numbers and positivity rate began to fall, the state began opening up in many different sectors. Offline classes began for college students in July - with all students and staff on campus needing to have been vaccinated.