Reopening of classes for students in I to V standards after one-and-a-half years on Monday received a fairly good response from students and parents across the seven districts of the Kalyana Karnataka region. Teachers welcoming students by offering flowers, showering flowers and handing over chocolates and decorated school buildings were common across the region on the first day.
As per officials in the office of Additional Commissioner of Public Instruction in Kalaburagi, attendance in both government and private schools in the region was around 50%.
“Around 30% of the schools have not updated their attendance on the system. Those who have updated have seen over 50% of attendance,” Additional Commissioner of Public Instruction (Kalaburagi) Nalin Atul told The Hindu .
Of the 204 students enrolled children in Class I to Class V (both Kannada ad English medium) in the Government Higher Primary School at Adarsh Nagar in Kalaburagi, 114 students attended classes. In Nali Kali, nine students were present against a total strength of 26.
“Parents are eager to send their children to schools. For the last two days, we received several calls from parents enquiring about school reopening,” said in-charge headmistress of the school Madivalamma Patil.
Tanushree and Pratam of Class I and Vaishnavi of Class II expressed happiness in attending classes. They hardly remembered anything about schools they attended for LKG and UKG.
Matoshree Ramabai Ambedkar Higher Primary School in the Gazipur locality saw poor turnout with six or seven students in each class against a strength of 35-40 each. School’s headmaster Basavaraj S. Gadad said that the reopening of schools has helped children as online schooling was a difficult task for children from poor backgrounds.
“Most of the children in our school had no access to online classes as their parents cannot afford an android phone. Though we had poor turnout on the first day, gradually, the strength will increase within a week. We have the contact numbers of parents and we are in touch with them,” Mr. Gadad said.
School authorities in some places were found distributing face masks and hand sanitisers to students and sensitising them on the COVID-19-appropriate behaviour. At CPS School in Koppal, a grand welcome was organised for students. The school was decorated with flowers and green plants. The students were screened with forehead thermometers before being allowed inside.
