Three-week holiday for Karnataka board schools; e-classes too will stop

BENGALURU: Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Sunday announced a three-week midterm holiday beginning Monday for all government, aided and unaided schools following the state board syllabus. The vacation till October 30 will also bring to a halt online classes.

The order covers all schools coming under the purview of the department of public instruction, but is not applicable for institutions following CBSE, ICSE or international curriculum.
The announcement reverses an earlier decision to scrap the midterm holidays, originally scheduled between October 3 and 26, and allow online classes by private schools and Vidyagama programme, which enabled continuous learning for public school students in the state.
The CM's statement on Sunday was followed by an official order from the department of primary and secondary education. The statement said orders on suspension of the government's Vidyagama programme and instructing the department not to reopen schools have been issued in the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since the government had initially announced there'll be no Dasara holidays, many schools had planned online exams in the coming days. With the government's U-turn, schools scrambled to change plans.
Three-week holiday will affect academic schedule: Principal
Tushar Girinath, in-charge principal secretary of the department of primary and secondary education, told TOI: “Government, government-aided and private schools following the state syllabus will be closed for midterm holidays. There will be no online classes too.”
Former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, who in a series of tweets had slammed the government’s move to cancel midterm holidays, welcomed the decision.
The government on Saturday suspended Vidyagama after more than 30 students and a few teachers were diagnosed with Covid-19.
Minister S Suresh Kumar denied the affected had contracted the virus from the continuous education programme.
Private schools had been lobbying against the programme, claiming it, among other things, allowed government schools to function even as they were deprived of that benefit and resulted in several students from their schools shifting to government ones. “A three-week holiday will affect the academic schedule. We’re short of days and online learning is more time consuming,” said the principal of a state-syllabus school in Rajajinagar.
“Online and offline classes on www.kamstv.com that are being telecast will be stopped. But online revision classes will be available,” said Sashi Kumar D, general secretary, KAMS (Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools of Karnataka).