Bengaluru, Oct 25: Schools in Karnataka re-opened for students of classes 1 to 5 from Monday, strictly adhering to COVID-19 related precautions and guidelines.
However, several private schools in the city and in different places across the state, have decided to reopen schools for these students only after Deepavali, official sources said.
Several schools had made special arrangements by decorating premises and classrooms to welcome students.
"I'm happy to come back to school. I had missed meeting friends, as I could rarely come out of home and there was no school. All these days I used to see teachers teaching on mobile or laptop, now I can see directly," a student of class 4 said with joy.
A teacher said the schools has made all the necessary arrangements by following the SOPs issued by the government, and felt happy welcoming children back.
With COVID-19 cases declining, Karnataka government in consultation with COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on October 18 had decided to permit re-opening of schools for students of classes 1 to 5 from October 25, by strictly adhering to COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and SOPs issued by the Department of Primary and Secondary Education.
Parental consent letter for physical classes is mandatory.
The government has laid down certain rules such as screening for COVID-19 symptoms on entry, 50 per cent of the capacity in a classroom, provision of hand sanitizers, physical distancing of a minimum of one meter as practically feasible, no crowding, particularly at school entry and exit, and disinfecting classrooms and restrooms daily using 1 percent sodium hypochlorite solution.
Only teachers and staff who have been vaccinated with two doses of COVID-19 vaccines would be allowed in classes 1 to 5, it had said, there shall be additional use of face shield by teachers who are over 50 years of age.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh recently said classes will be held for half a day during the first week and had asked parents to send children to school without any fear.
The government had reopened schools for students of classes 6 to 8 from September 6 and for students of classes 9 to 12 from August 23.
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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).