Some of the private schools in the district have come under adverse notice of the Education Department for attempting to carry out online admission of students surreptitiously notwithstanding the restrictions in place on functioning of educational institutions during the COVID 19 nationwide lockdown.

The intense competition between matriculation and schools following CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) pattern, in retaining existing students and attracting additional students had reflected in some of the schools reaching out to prospective parents through WhatsApp messages about the initiation of online admission of students for classes I to X.

Having reined in CBSE schools that had tried to fix deadlines for parents for online payment of fees last month, the district administration has again issued a stern warning to schools that stringent action will be taken against schools flouting the government directive to remain closed in all aspects during the COVID 19 lockdown period.

“After the issue of online admission was brought to our notice, we thought it fit to issue a clear instruction to the schools, though no specific complaint was made,” Chief Educational Officer of Tiruchi S. Shanthi said.

The instruction issued by District Collector S. Sivarasu requires schools, colleges and training institutions will remain closed until further notice.

The Collector made a categorical statement that schools, irrespective of the stream, must not admit students for 2020-21 academic session either directly or through online process and desist from collecting fee or undertaking any other activity.

The schools that flout the instruction will be dealt with stringently, the Collector said.

Under ‘The Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009’, the institutions will face the risk of losing recognition if they were found collecting fee in contravention of the government's instruction.

Last month, School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan warned private school managements of strict action if they collected free from students and appealed to parents to pass on information to the authorities.

According to a functionary of a school management, even retaining existing students has become an ordeal, leave alone admitting new students, due to the continuous increase in the number of schools.

The school education department's policy note 2020-21 states that there are 4,438 matriculation schools providing education to about 38 lakh children.

During the year 2019-20, permission was granted to start 58 new matriculation schools, and 91 matriculation schools were upgraded into matriculation higher secondary schools.