School doors to remain closed till yearend

Bengaluru: The State government on Monday has decided not to reopen schools and pre university colleges till December end.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa told the reporters that the government would review the Covid-19 situation in the third week of December and would take a decision on reopening of schools after that.

"According to the experts, we should not start classes in schools and PU colleges till December end. In a few engineering colleges, classes have resumed but the attendance is under 5 per cent. So, an appropriate decision, based on Covid-19 situation, will be taken in the third week of December," the Chief Minister said.

The decision was taken at a meeting where Yediyurappa and Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar met education experts. The decision, which comes barely a week after the State decided to reopen degree colleges and other institutes of higher education after consulting experts, was taken amid fears of a second wave in Karnataka - the country's second worst-hit State in terms of absolute numbers of positive cases. The Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee meeting held on November 22 also decided not to reopen the schools.

While the colleges have reopened from November 17 attendance of students has been very poor. "The current scenario of Covid-19 in the State is showing a declining trend with around 1,700 cases and 20 deaths reported daily. It is important to consolidate this gain that is made after great efforts in the last eight months to contain the disease in the State. However, currently there is a spike of cases in the States of Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan among others.

"Besides, the months of December and January due to winter are cold and conducive to occurrence and spread of respiratory infections including Covid-19. The epidemiological perspective based on the State Covid-19 survey done in September is that there may be a spike in Covid-19 cases in the districts with low prevalence," the committee stated.

"In this context, after extensive deliberations it was unanimously resolved "not to reopen the schools in December". However, the scenario of Covid-19 in the State shall be reviewed in the last week of December to consider reopening of schools in the State at an appropriate time subsequently," the committee concluded.