The apparent flip-flop by the Education Department in arriving at a decision on reopening schools has caused disquiet among teachers.
Earlier this week, the State government came out with standard operating procedures to be adopted after permitting students studying in classes X to XII to come to schools from October 1 on a voluntary basis for taking guidance from teachers.
A recent statement by School Education Minister T.A. Sengottaiyan that announcement on regular functioning of schools will be made by Chief Minister at the start of October has caused confusion among school heads.
“There is no clarity in whether the Minister referred to the opening of schools for classes I to IX. In any case, there are indications that parents are reluctant to send their wards to the schools,” a school head said.
As per the schedule, admissions will get to a close at the end of this month. But teachers still have no information on the portions that will be reduced from the syllabi this year due to loss in the number of working days.
“All we know as of now is that 40% of the portions will be reduced. But there is no information on the chapters identified for deletion this year. In case the chapters that have already been handled are taken off, the very purpose of the exercise of content reduction will be defied,” a senior teacher in a city school said.
The portions being voluminous, for the core subjects in particular, teachers have no clue on how to do justice to the teaching-learning process. As such, the department has reportedly hinted that the quarterly and half-yearly exams will be replaced by a series of revision tests later in this academic year.
“We have lost much time in a helpless situation. There is no certainty about factors turning out to be conducive any time soon,” another teacher in Manaparai block said.