A week after high schools and PU colleges reopened for offline classes, the attendance across the State for II PU classes stood at 34%, while it was 54% for classes IX and X. While the attendance has improved in high schools compared to the first day, the attendance for II PU classes has dipped.
The attendance for PU classes has been recorded for both offline and online classes, while for high schools, the attendance has been recorded for offline classes only.
Class IX and X attendance on August 23 stood at 19.56% and 21.08% respectively, while the I PU attendance stood at 36%.
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Though there has been steady improvement in attendance since August 23 when high schools and PU colleges reopened, experts and teachers find it worrisome that such a large section of students are neither attending offline nor online classes.
Test positivity rate
Offline classes had resumed after a gap of five months as schools were closed due to the second wave of COVID-19 infections.
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Schools and PU colleges were allowed to remain open only in districts where the test positivity rate was less than 2%.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister B.C. Nagesh said he had sought a report on why II PU attendance had declined over the past week.
According to data provided by the Department of Primary and Secondary Education, 43% of the total 15,568 schools had not yet resumed offline classes. D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said majority of the government and budget private schools had reopened and were seeing rise in attendance. “Many of the bigger private schools, majority of which are Central board schools, have not reopened as parents are hesitant to send children to school. In fact, in budget private schools, we have been seeing an improvement over the past one week as parents are feeling more confident,” he said.
V. Anbukumar, Commissioner for Public Instruction, said the attendance in offline classes was extremely high in rural schools and they had received tepid response only in schools in urban areas. Madhugiri educational district saw the highest percentage of students attending either online or offline classes with 84% and 89% students attending classes IX and X respectively.
Least attendance
The least attendance was reported in Bengaluru South and Bengaluru North. Bengaluru North reported attendance of 22% in class IX and 25% in class X. In Bengaluru South, 30% attendance was recorded in class IX and 31% in class X.
For I PU, the attendance was highest in Gadag with 62% students attending both offline and online classes, while the least attendance was in Koppal, where only 5% attended.