As the State government is gearing up to reopen schools in districts having a positivity rate of less than 2 per cent from August 23, the government as well as private schools in Mysuru district have been told to prepare for commencing classes for Class 9 and 10 since the district meets the requirements.
The officials at the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) in Mysuru are awaiting guidelines and instructions from Bengaluru. Minister in charge of Mysuru district S .T Somashekar is expected to hold a meeting with the district and the ZP authorities here on Tuesday in connection with the decision on reopening schools. Last week, the district’s TPR, as per the figures from the COVID-19 War Room, stood at 1.13 percent.
Mysuru’s Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) Ramachandra Raje Urs on Monday visited various schools in the taluk and elicited opinions from students, their parents, teachers and the members of SDMCs on reopening schools. He had talks with the BEOs and the heads of high schools on the steps to be taken with about a week left for the reopening.
Mr. Urs told The Hindu that a majority of students, parents and the SDMC members were in favour of reopening, and are ready to send their wards to the offline classes. “A few parents wanted a sort of assurance from us about the precautions taken at the schools. If it is taken care of, they too want to send their children to schools,” he said.
The DDPI said he will compile the opinions and place them before the ZP CEO ahead of Tuesday’s meeting. “When I spoke to the children, they felt very happy to be back in their schools. The enthusiasm is obvious. From our side, whatever preparations necessary for the reopening are being done and we will wait for the government’s instructions to come out with the specifics,” he replied.
Almost every school which he visited on Tuesday has seen a rise in admissions this year, which is a notable factor, he added.
In Mysuru district, nearly 85,125 students are studying in Class 9 and Class 10 this year. They include 30,685 children in government schools, 32,531 in unaided, 17,394 in aided, 639 in Kendriya Vidyalaya, 777 in the Social Welfare Department schools, and 158 in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya.
The DDPI, who visited schools at Keelanapura, M.C. Hundi and Varakodu and other villages, also inspected the school infrastructure and the steps to be taken by the school authorities ahead of the reopening.
