In-person classes will continue to be suspended until January 29 across Bengaluru in the wake of a continuing surge in cases in the urban district, the minister for primary and secondary education BC Nagesh said.
The minister addressed the media after a review meeting chaired by Karnataka chief minister, Basavaraj Bommai was held in Bengaluru.
However, relaxations have been made in other parts of the state where in-person classes will resume starting on Monday.
The minister said that henceforth, in the other districts, the “School as a unit” concept would be adopted allowing decisions to be taken on closure at a local level. Should a school report sporadic cases, it will remain shut for three days and thorough sanitization will be carried out. However, should cluster cases come to light, the school will remain closed for a seven-day period.
“In the other districts apart from Bengaluru where schools were closed, the government has now directed respective DCs to review the situation and commence in-person classes wherever possible,” said Nagesh adding that a decision on Bengaluru schools will be taken next week.
Currently, in Karnataka where the positivity rate is over 20 %, of the 2.93 lakh active cases Karnataka 5,344 have been hospitalized and 127 are on ventilators.
Low positivity rate
Even as the overall positivity rate is high in Bengaluru with the government calling it the epicenter of the Omicron-induced third wave of the pandemic (overall positivity rate in Bengaluru is at 14.12 %), among children between age groups of six and 15, it is at 5.94 %. Six districts in the state have 9 % and above, 13 districts have 5 % or less positivity rate.
Districts having high positivity rate
Tumkuru 11.8 %
Mysuru 7.65 %
Kolar 7.41 %
Hassan 6.8 %
Bengaluru Rural 8.84 %
Responding to this, D Shashikumar, general secretary, KAMS said, “We welcome the government’s decision to reopen schools in other parts of the state. They have justified the suspension of in-person classes in Bengaluru attributing it to a high number of cases. The government has said another week time would be given before considering reopening of schools in Bengaluru. We request them not to delay beyond that. Henceforth, we seek that no educational institutions should be shut in the wake of the pandemic and it must be ensured that children have access to continued education.”