Bengaluru: Schools, colleges reopen after eight months hiatus

Bengaluru: After a gap of eight months schools across the State reopened to welcome students of SSLC and second PUC on Friday.

As per the government guidelines, the classes are being conducted between 10 am and 12:30 pm and it's mandatory for teachers over 50 years of age to wear a face shield. Classes for SSLC students in 16,850 schools and 4,481 PUC (1,231 government, 750 aided and 2,500 unaided private colleges) students started on Friday.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar visited some schools on January 1. Only 15 students, seated at a distance of two feet from each other, are being allowed in each room; four classes of 45 minutes duration each are being conducted.

The minister on December 31, 2020 had requested the parents to send their wards to schools without any fear assuring that the schools were adequately prepared to protect the health of the students.

D Sashi Kumar, secretary, Karnataka Association of Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools, said that the major apprehension among the parents is of the mutated strain of Covid.

The minister has asked the teachers to make the students aware of the Covid protocols on day one.

The expectation is to have 50% attendance on the first day.

K. Murthy, a resident of Koramangala, told The Hans India that he had sent his son, a Class 10 student, to the school though there is an apprehension about the new strain of Covid. "We have learnt to live with the virus in the past several months," he observed.