Teachers set to return to govt schools in Bengaluru tomorrow

BENGALURU: Government schools are set to reopen this week, with teachers arriving on campus on Monday. Once the teachers set the campus and the year plan ready, the children will arrive on Wednesday.
However, the fate of Kalika Chetarike (KC), the learning recovery programme, for the second year is unclear. The director of school education and literacy said the programme will not be held for the 2023-24 academic year. The special project director of Samagra Shikshana Karnataka (SSK), which prepared the programme, was unavailable for comment.
In mid-April, SSK said it had written to the chief election commissioner for permission to float a tender for printing worksheets. This was because the election code of conduct was in place. Officials said that since the project cost was around Rs 70 lakh, there was a lot of discussion and the approval from the government took time.
Sources at SSK said the worksheets and activity books were readied, but whether they would be printed is not known and would depend on the new government. "KC was a programme envisioned for 10 months. That is completed. What was envisioned for the next year was strengthening of age-appropriate learning outcomes. The worksheets and activity bank have been prepared, but whether they will be printed is unclear," said the source.
However, now officials from the department of school education said the programme will not be rolled out. "Schools have been asked to work on the bridge programmes. It ranges from 15 days for higher classes to 30 days in lower grades. It also has transition classes for bilingual-medium schools," said an official.
Recognition issues
Around 1,700 schools were identified with recognition issues. This ranged from having additional sections than permitted and teaching CBSE syllabus while being affiliated to the state board, among other things.
The education department had given time till May 25 for the schools to rectify the problems. "We'll collect information from BEOs on how many schools have rectified the issues. Once the data is collected, a decision will be made on what has to be done with the others," said Prasanna Kumar, director, department of primary education.
While then minister for school education BC Nagesh had said the names of the schools would be published so as to alert parents before taking admission, no such list has been published.