Schools in Karnataka will not reopen on June 1, state to formulate guidelines

The education department, however, said that guidelines will be issued on Monday.
Schools in Karnataka will not reopen on June 1, state to formulate guidelines
Schools in Karnataka will not reopen on June 1, state to formulate guidelines
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June 1, is generally the day schools reopen after the summer break. However, due to the lockdown in place, schools in Karnataka will not open on June 1 as the Karnataka government has not issued any directions or notifications allowing schools to reopen.

Speaking to TNM, KG Jagadeesha, the Commissioner of the Department of Public Instructions said that schools can't reopen unless certain mandatory guidelines are notified. "We are waiting for guidelines from the Centre. We will formulate our own guidelines based on the Centre's recommendations," he said.

As far as reopening of schools is concerned, officials with the Primary and Secondary Education Department stated that the notification issued earlier in March this year, asking schools to shut down still stands. "We have not issued any fresh notification so the old one will continue to be in place until we issue a new one," an education department official said.

Some schools have informed parents that online classes will be held for students of classes 9, 10 and 12 from June 1 onwards. Some schools have said that children in other classes won't have online classes, but offline lessons will be uploaded online.

The education department officials further stated that NIMHANS, which was entrusted the task of furnishing a feasibility report regarding online learning, clearly stated that this medium cannot be used for LKG and UKG students. "The NIMHANS report said that small children have short attention spans and hence online learning would be ineffective. We are waiting on guidelines from the Centre on whether online classes can be held for older students and also to see if it's feasible since that cannot be possible in rural areas. We will issue guidelines on Monday," the official added.

Officials also indicated that the department is mulling over allowing schools to open in batches from July onwards and that it may be only for high school students. "We have a lot of things to discuss. One issue is whether or not syllabus must be reduced. But by doing this children from our state must not have lesser knowledge than those from other states. We don't want them to be left behind. So we are trying to chalk out a plan regarding how many students can attend school on a day and whether only half of students from each class have to attend school on alternate days to maintain distance," the official added. 

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