-Reshma Ravishanker
The Karnataka government’s decision to reopen in-person classes for students between classes VI and VIII saw a lukewarm response with less than one third students attending classes on Monday in schools across the state.
The government had announced that in person classes would commence starting September 6 nearly three weeks after physical classes began for students between classes IX and XII.
Class VIII reported the least attendance percentage with just 23.22% students coming to campus for classes. Among the class VI students, 29.15% attended classes while 28.06% class VII students attended in person classes in the state.
According to a report released by the department of primary and secondary education, 64.36% of schools failed to even enter data on the government managed Student Attendance Tracking System, a possible indication that classes might not have commenced in as many as 24,258 schools.
Some individual schools, particularly in the rural and semi urban areas reported a high attendance for in-person classes.
Ganesh Prasad is the principal of Sadguru High School, a government-aided school in Chikkamagaluru said, “We saw an 80% attendance in class VIII as we reopened classes for them today. This does not come as a surprise as a lot of students in our school have been waiting to get back on campus. We are certain that these numbers are bound to stay because most students and parents believe that online learning is not doing justice,” he said.