Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru (SD)

Bengaluru, Jun 10: The Karnataka state department of Primary and Secondary Education ordered a ban on online classes for children from KG to class 5 on Wednesday, June 10. This move has brought a great relief to parents, teacher and students struggling to cope with the new norms of online classes introduced due the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision was taken after many parents complained about online classes being conducted even for the kindergarten kids. A report submitted by NIMHANS recommending online classes for children only above six years and above also influenced this decision.

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Primary and Secondary Education minister S Suresh Kumar after a meeting with the department officials said that online classes for LKG, UKG and primary classes should be stopped immediately and also added that collecting fees in the name of online classes should be stopped at once. He further said that the government has already issued a circular about it insisting that schools not collect fees in the name of online classes and also requesting schools not to increase fees for the 2020-21 academic year considering financial constraints of several people due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The department had discussions on how to keep the students engaged otherwise but there was no clarity over the reopening of schools for the academic year 2020-21. "We have constituted a committee to prepare guidelines on how to engage students and increase their knowledge. The committee is headed by Prof MK Sridhar," he said.

Before the final decision taken, the department had three rounds of discussions with experts in the field, among them were, Prof M K Sridhar, Prof V P Niranjanaradhya, Dr John Vijay Sagar along with other departments including the home and health department.