Government schools across the State will begin admissions for classes 1, 6 and 9 from Monday.
Owing to the restrictions in place due to COVID-19 over the last few months, the admissions this year will take place as per the government guidelines.
The headmaster of a corporation school in the city said they have earmarked separate rooms for admissions for each class. “Not more than 10 parents and students will be allowed inside at a time and a teacher will be posted outside to direct them towards the classroom they are supposed to go to,” he said.
The State government has said that students who are not able to make it to the schools due to quarantine restrictions should also be given admissions. “We have been told that we can speak to them over the phone and even students who do not have all the documents necessary in hand will be given a provisional admission on the spot. Our focus is on ensuring they are all enrolled,” said P.K. Ilamaran, president of the Tamil Nadu Teachers Association, speaking about the admission process in his school.
Many government schools in rural areas carry out awareness drives by printing notices about the achievements of the school and students and distributing them before admissions begin. “It has not been possible to do so this year with the restrictions due to COVID-19 in place.
Admissions in government schools generally take place when the school is functioning and since schools are shut right now, parents might wait for them to reopen and then come to get their wards enrolled,” said Patric Raymond, Tamil Nadu Graduate Teachers Federation. He said that to ensure students get enrolled in government schools, the government could create more awareness about the admission process and reach out to parents through television campaigns.
All schools will also begin the distribution of the Class 10 provisional mark sheets for students from Monday.
As a first step, to initiate the admissions under the Right to Education Act 2009, private schools have been asked to submit details regarding their intake capacity to the district-level education committees on Monday.
The online application process for RTE admissions for the 2020-21 academic year will begin from August 27 and go on till September 25.