Bengaluru: Karnataka’s Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has directed the State Government to reopen offline classes for students in classes 6 to 8 on September 13. The decision has come following the reopening of physical classes for Classes 9 to 12 in the State.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, had previously stated that a decision on reopening schools for lower primary students would be made by the end of August.
According to the sources, on Thursday August 26, Chief Minister Bommai convened a meeting with the TAC to discuss the restarting of classes. The TAC proposed waiting three weeks before reopening schools for class 6-8 students, so that three weeks could be spent studying the consequences of the current reopening of Classes 9 to 12.
Reports also state that the TAC has also advised that random RT-PCR tests be undertaken in schools on a weekly basis on 10 per cent of students and the test positive rate must be kept track of. If the positive rate exceeded 2 per cent, the schools would be closed for a week and sanitised. Responses from teachers, parents and schools will be taken into consideration on reopening of school on the basis of number of students testing positive.
