The Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas across the country have been kept on standby to face the COVID-19 emergency.
In separate circulars, both Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and Navodayaa Vidyalaya Samiti have directed respective deputy commissioners and principals of the schools to handover school buildings to the competent authorities to combat COVID-19.
As schools across the nation have been declared holiday and hostel buildings are vacant, the same could be utilised during this crisis, mainly to provide a quarantine facility.
Meanwhile, the departments of Social Welfare and Higher Education have directed officials concerned to keep the schools and college buildings ready. Following the directions, the officials of Social Welfare and collegiate education are fumigating school and college buildings.
Following the reports that number of people infected with COVID-19 may increase to lakhs in a state in the coming days, all departments are keeping their infrastructure ready to face the emergencies.
“We have received communication from Higher Education minister asking us to keep all our college buildings ready. The keys of class rooms have been collected and available with a nodal officer appointed. In case of emergency, we will hand over the buildings to the district authorities,” said an official of the Collegiate Education Department. Karnataka has over 425 government degree colleges,19 state-run universities and all these universities have well-equipped guest houses and hostels to accommodate people in case of emergencies.