Some children excited, while others return with puffy eyes and a yawn

On Day One, parents and students make their way to schools after battling with early morning traffic

After two months of vacation, several private schools across the city reopened on Monday. Parents and students made their way to schools after battling with the early morning traffic.

While some students had puffy eyes and went to school with a yawn, others returned to school with excitement.

Government schools, however, began their academic year on Saturday. The beginning was a special moment for 50,000 out-of-school children (which includes children who have never been in school or those who had dropped out) who have been enrolled into neighbourhood schools following the High Court of Karnataka’s direction to the State government.

The Department of Public Instruction had conducted a special enrolment drive in May this year to ensure that the children are mainstreamed into schools.

Some have also been provided with hostel facility.

Most State board schools across the city received textbooks on time, well before the commencement of the academic year.

However, there was a shortage of one of the science textbooks for class seven.

Most government schools in Bangalore South are yet to receive their uniforms that are supposed to be given by the government.

According to sources in the Department of Public Instruction, the distribution of cycles for class eight students from rural areas would take some time.

Hopes dashed

Even as the academic year brought cheer to some students, several other parents and students who had pinned their hopes on the 25 per cent reservation quota staged a protest outside the office of the Commissioner for Public Instruction as their wards were yet to obtain seats.

Rajesh Kumar, a member of the RTE Parents Forum, represented a group of parents whose wards were denied admission in private unaided schools even after their children’s names figured on the list of selected students.

“The schools have been claiming the status of minority schools so that they are exempted from providing seats under the reservation quota. Parents and children have nowhere to go and are worried as schools have begun,” he said.