Bagalkot: At a time when the government has planned to start classes for Class 10 and 12 in the state from January 1, some 9,000 teachers working in higher primary and high schools in the district are undergoing Covid-19 test.
The schools will be reopening in January after a gap of nearly eight months. At present, the government has said that “it would be starting regular classes only for 10 and 12 class students.” The government has also declared that it will start its flagship Vidyagama programme, which enables continued schooling for higher primary students, that is, from six to ninth grade in January.
According to the Department of Public Instructions, “There are a total of 13,483 teachers working in lower primary, higher primary and high schools in the district. Among them, 7,974 are working in higher primary and 3,958 in high school. Out of the 3,958 high school teachers, 1,831 are employed in state-run schools, 867 are in aided and 1,260 in private schools in the district. There are 470 high schools, where 186 are government, 125 are aided and the remaining 159 are private schools in the district.”
Following the orders of the state government, all the teachers working in higher primary and high school are being made to go under a RT-PCR test.
Ashok Basannavar, in-charge Deputy Director of DPI said that “Every day around 400 teachers are being made to go under RT-PCR test. The tests are being conducted in coordination with the health authorities. We have directed all the teachers to give their samples at the nearest Primary Health Care centre instead of at the district civil hospital.
The Covid tests of all the teachers will be completed by December 30. “At present around 60 per cent of the teachers have gone under RT-PCR tests, where none of them has tested positive. We have also sent the circular to the administrators of private schools directing them to order all of its staff to go under Covid test at district hospital or nearest PHC, where the tests are being done at free of cost,” stated in-charge DDPI Ashok.
