Schools in Bengaluru expect KG turnout to improve

BENGALURU: Children of the 3-6 age group will return to anganwadi and kindergarten classes on Monday with the government deciding to let them function physically. This will result in the complete reopening of schools for the first time in Karnataka since they closed in March 2020.
Anganwadis in the city said they are expecting a good turnout on Monday. “While working parents are more than happy to send their children, stay-at-home parents might still be hesitant. We have to wait and see how many kids show up and also do not have enough space for all children at a time. We will have to tell parents about alternate day arrangements,” said Parvathamma C, founder president of Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers Welfare Association and a teacher at an anganwadi in Hebbal.
Many K-10 schools said they have dismal admissions in kindergarten but will still reopen from Monday. “Many of us do not even have 5% of our normal admissions. However, we will still keep classes open as these are the children who have lost out the most. We do not want to make it worse for them,” said D Shashi Kumar, secretary, Association of Primary and Secondary Schools of Karnataka. Many CBSE and ICSE schools, however, have not announced offline classes for these grades yet.
Centres like EuroKids International and Kangaroo Kids said they will resume physical classes from November 8 itself. “Our experience from states like Punjab where preschools have been open since August is that attendance builds up slowly as parents become more confident about sending kids back to preschools, and we expect that with offices resuming, physical attendance will increase over a period of time,” said KVS Seshasai, CEO of the pre-K division of EuroKids International and Kangaroo Kids.
“The response from parents in smaller classes is much more positive. While we had expected a 50% turnout, our current guess is that around 80% kids might come to campuses. We are now recalculating our plans for Covid protocols,” said Kavitha Gupta, of Neev Academy, that will start classes by November 15.