The Karnataka government has announced that no live online classes should be held for students up to class 5 including the kindergarten classes. However, they can continue learning with pre-recorded classes. It has further said that fees for holding online classes will also be halted with immediate effect.

The state education minister Suresh Kumar made the announcement not to conduct live online classes at a press conference on Wednesday. The online classes will continue for secondary and higher classes. A committee will be formed to decide how to keep students engaged with the learning process including both online and pre-recorded classes.

The ministry has been receiving several complaints from parents statewide about the live online classes. A meeting was held by the ministry with the education experts, psychiatrists and other experts on June to discuss to conduct or not to conduct online live classes before the announcement was made. Addressing the media, the minister said, “We will discuss the screen time for certain classes and appropriate remedies to continue learning later. For now, we have decided that for LKG, UKG and primary classes, no live classes will be conducted, considering their age and mental health.”

There are suggestions from some cabinet ministers to extend the rule for students up to class 7. However a final decision is yet to be taken. 

The minister had earlier tweeted that online classes should not be conducted for the kindergarten students. Experts from NIMHANS had also stated that online classes should not be ideally held for students up to Class 3. According to the recommendation by the World Health Organisation, children under six years of age should not be exposed to more than an hour of screen time.

Source: The News Minute

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