The Karnataka Government on Tuesday extended the midterm vacations for government and aided schools till October 18 to facilitate the completion of the ongoing Socioeconomic and Educational Survey carried out by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes. The decision was made during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to review the progress of the survey.
While the statewide exercise was scheduled to be held from September 22 to October 7, it is being extended as none of the districts has achieved 100 per cent completion of the door-to-door enumeration exercise.
Addressing a news conference, the chief minister said that the Karnataka State Primary Schools Teachers’ Association had submitted a memorandum seeking a few more days to complete the survey. “The Government has decided to extend the holiday to all government and aided schools till October 18,” he said.
Story continues below this ad
Siddaramaiah said that while there was 97 per cent progress in Koppal district, the survey in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts were lagging, having achieved 63 per cent and 60 per cent progress, respectively. “In the entire state, survey work was not done as per our expectation,” he said.
Responding to a question, he said that there was poor progress in the first few days due to several issues, including technical problems. “It is being conducted in a full-fledged manner now,” he said.
Teachers from pre-university colleges, where midterm exams are scheduled from October 12, will be exempt from the process, Siddaramaiah said.
The survey’s progress in Bengaluru has been “very low”, the chief minister said, noting that enumeration in the city limits had started only on October 3. Teachers and other officials have assured the Government that the enumeration would be completed on October 19, before Deepavali, he said. For 46 lakh households in Bengaluru, 21,000 enumerators, which include government officials and 6,700 teachers, are involved in the exercise.
Story continues below this ad
Siddaramaiah said three teachers had died while carrying out the survey and that each of their families would be given a compensation of Rs 20 lakh. To a question, he said that even though a few districts would achieve 100 per cent progress in the next couple of days, leave would have to be uniform across the state.
Special classes to cover syllabus
To cover the syllabus, special classes will be held at schools where holidays have been extended, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said. A decision will be made at the district level on extending classes by one hour so as to compensate for the extra holidays, he said.
A day earlier, citing various delays and the slow pace of enumeration in different parts of the state, the Government decided to extend the deadline for the ongoing Socioeconomic and Educational Survey till October 12. In the areas under the Greater Bengaluru Authority, where the survey began late, the last date has been extended till October 24.
As of Monday evening, of the total target of 1.43 crore households in the state, the survey was completed in 1.10 crore houses (80.39 per cent). In the process, a population of 4.32 crore was covered by enumerators since the survey began on September 22. In Bengaluru, where the survey began last Saturday, 2.6 lakh of the target of 39.82 lakh households have been covered so far.
