The State government on Monday clarified to the High Court of Karnataka that banning online classes completely was not its intention but it was only an interim measure till it decided in what manner online classes will have to be allowed keeping in mind “health” of students.
Interestingly, though the government had earlier claimed that it had considered an opinion from NIMHANS before issuing the June 15 order of banning online classes, a letter from a senior professor of NIMHANS, submitted before the court on Monday by the government, disclosed that he was in favour of online classes but had suggested that teaching should not exceed 90 minutes per day for children in the age group of 3 to 6.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Nataraj Rangaswamy, which heard the arguments on the PIL petitions filed by the parents and educational institutions challenging the ban and the restrictions, said it would pronounce the verdict on July 7.
Earlier, State Advocate-General Prabhuling K. Navadgi said the orders banning and imposing restrictions would be treated as “Executive Orders” of the State issued under Article 162 of the Constitution, while countering the petitioners’ argument that the government, under the Karnataka Education Act, had no power to issue such orders.
The government’s order on online classes is not an interference in education but exercise of power to impose restrictions on all types of schools, including SCSE, CBSE and International Baccalaureate schools, in the interest of “protecting the health” of students, the A-G argued, while contending that the ban imposed was only an interim measure as government did not want to take a hurried decision.
The advocates for the petitioners have pointed out that while letter from NIMHANS discloses that it was limited to suggested that children in pre-primary schools cannot be given online education more than 90 minutes a day, the government did not even allow this suggestion but restricted schools to have 30 minutes online interaction with parents of such children once a week.
