Schools and Pre-University (PU) colleges in Karnataka will reopen from today, January 1, for students of Class 10 and Class 12, after a gap of nearly 10 months. Students of Classes 6 to 9 will also be allowed to visit their schools for the Vidyagama programme.
The decision to reopen schools was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, after discussing in detail the advice given by the state's Technical Advisory Committee for COVID-19 on reopening of schools.
The Chief Minister had previously said on social media that a decision on reopening schools for students of other classes would be taken after reviewing the situation for 15 days. Both classes 10 and second PUC are crucial as students will have to face board exams.
Before reopening of schools, Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on Wednesday visited a few institutions to review their preparedness to conduct classes adhering to COVID-19 guidelines.
Mr Kumar inspected arrangements in classrooms and spoke to the headmasters, principals, lecturers and teachers, instructing them to take precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus once the classes resume, official sources said.
Schools and PU colleges in Karnataka have remained closed since March just ahead of the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Degree and engineering colleges in the state were reopened on November 17. Karnataka is planning to hold regular classes for PU first year from January 15.
