Bengaluru, Aug 23 (UNI) Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai Monday said a decision on reopening primary schools will be taken at the end of the month after consulting the experts.
"The experts are meeting towards the end of the month. Considering the present situation, we will take into account two things. One is with regards to (Covid situation) in border districts and second is to take a call on reopening of primary school, from first to eighth standard, at the end of the month," he told reporters here.
High schools and pre-university colleges that were closed for nearly 18 months due to Covid, reopened Monday. A night before, the Chief Minister had urged his council ministers to visit the schools and colleges to review and monitor the Covid situation in these institutions.
In this backdrop, Bommai himself visited the Nirmala Rani High School at Malleswaram in Bengaluru and interacted with the students and heard their experiences of attending online classes.
He also discussed about Covid norms to be followed by them. Education Minister B C Nagesh and Higher Education Minister Dr CN Ashwattha Narayana were present at the occasion.
Continuing further, Bommai said students are very happy to be back to school because they were facing a lot of online issues. The normal classroom teaching will help students understand better and mentally satisfied by being with their classmates.
"Students are all very happy. They have expressed their happiness because online there were a lot of issues, like communication issues and network issues, but here one-to-one direct dialogue with the teacher will help students understand better and mentally feel better being with their classmates," he said.
Bommai said some of the students with whom he interacted said coming back to school was something like getting freedom from Covid.
"The students are very happy to be back in school. It is like they have got freedom from Covid. The whole country celebrated Independence Day on August 15, but the real freedom for students is today. They have expressed it," he said.
Bommai has advised students to be very cautious and strictly follow Covid norms.
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