CHENNAI: The
Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday announced that
consultative meetings of school heads and
parents will be held at all government, government-aided and private schools on November 9 to decide on reopening of the schools.
An official release from school education secretary Dheeraj Kumar said the meeting would take place at 10am adhering to the
Covid-19 protocols.
“The parents of students of classes IX, X, XI and XII shall participate and express their views. Parents, who are unable to attend, shall send their views through letters. Based on the decision of this meeting, the government will decide on reopening those schools,” the bureaucrat said.
While the government considered the views of the parents and educationists on reopening the schools, it has decided to hold a consultative meeting to elicit the views of the parents, office-bearers of the parent-teacher associations and the private school managements, the officer said.
Dheeraj Kumar said parents and educationists had made continuous representations to the government to reopen the higher classes on a priority basis considering the fall in Covid-19 cases in the state. The Union government’s guidelines on September 30 permitted reopening of schools after October 15 in a graded manner, depending on the situation.
The Tamil Nadu government announced reopening of schools for classes IX, X, XI and XII from November 16, in consultation with the revenue and disaster management, health department and health experts.
“This decision was taken considering the festive holidays, Christmas, New Year and Pongal. Also, learning entirely through Kalvi TV and online will not give them complete satisfaction, and the fact that it is through direct teaching in the classroom by teachers that the students could easily understand the subjects and face the examinations,” the officer said.
The Centre’s guidelines stated that the state governments may take a decision in consultation with the respective school/institution management based on their assessment of the situation and subject to the conditions. On this basis, the state government’s standard operating procedures had been prepared, the officer said.