Karnataka govt establishes a panel to draft guidelines for schools in A.Y. 2021-22 during Covid-19 pandemic

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The Karnataka Government had taken the call on Wednesday to establish an expert panel to draft the required guidelines for the upcoming academic year 2021 – 22 to be followed by the primary and secondary education with the rising apprehensions about the third wave of Covid-19 to be hitting the state which might impact the academic year again.

The committee will supervise several aspects such as assessment models, online teaching, offline learning, teacher training methodology, efficient utilization of budgetary resources, and several other subjects, according to Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar.

Kumar said the expert committee will consist of popular educationists, representatives from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), NIMHANS, child specialists, members from the Technical Advisory Committee over Covid-19, renowned health experts along with the officers and representatives of parents, private schools and teacher associations. The National Education Policy (NEP) implementation will be the major focus of the agenda for the upcoming academic year, he added.

Regarding the government and government-aided teachers who died in the pandemic on Covid duty, Kumar said the dependents of the teachers will be given financial assistance from Teachers Benefit Fund. Kumar said, “ As they (teachers) are at the forefront of delivering their responsibilities, it has been decided to put up a proposal to the Health Department to term them as COVID warriors and provide them priority in administering the vaccine.”

The process of recruiting new teachers would be accelerated after finishing the formality of cadre and recruitment amendment at the earliest. He further added the textbooks will be reaching the students within a couple of months. In 2020 also, Karnataka had set up an expert committee led by eminent educationist MK Sridhar to oversee online education amid the Covid-19 situation of the country and the clear recommendations were online mode of teaching or by using printed materials.

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