Teachers working in government and aided schools will be roped in to conduct a universal survey of all families across the State to identify individuals with health conditions.
Teachers who are booth-level officers will be assisted by another teacher and will have to identify patients who have severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) and influenza-like illnesses. They will also have to report if people have any symptoms of COVID-19.
K.G. Jagadeesha, Commissioner for Public Instruction, said survey details would be issued by the Department of Health and Family Welfare.
In five days
As the survey will have to be completed quickly, the department has issued a circular asking district-level officers to depute additional teachers. The survey needs to be completed within five days.
The data collected will be fed into the ‘Health watch’ mobile app. Teachers can upload the details they collect directly through their smartphones or they can enter the data at the office of the Block Education Officer.
‘Provide safety gear’
While teachers said they would be happy to help the government, they highlighted the importance of being provided with proper safety gear.
Basavaraj Gurikar, president of the Karnataka State Government Primary School Teachers’ Association, said, “Although we think health workers will be better equipped to carry out the survey, we are ready to do the survey as it is a global pandemic. However, we want the government to provide us with masks and gloves so that we can take precautionary measures.” He added that senior teachers need to be exempted from it.
