Decision on reopening schools for classes 9 to 12 after consultations with parents on Nov 9: TN govt

A decision on opening schools for classes 9 to 12 would be taken after seeking the opinion of parents on November 9, the Tamil Nadu government said here on Wednesday. The move to hold consultations comes days after Chief Minister K Palaniswami had said that schools would start functioning from November 16 for standards between 9 to 12.

There were however concerns in certain quarters over reopening schools in view of the pandemic, and media and newspapers reflected such opinions, an official release here said. Hence, school principals would hold consultation meetings on November 9 with parents and parent-teacher association office-bearers on re-starting classes for 9th to 12th standards, the statement said.

The meetings would start at 10 am on that day in government, state-aided and private schools across Tamil Nadu by following COVID-19 preventive measures. "Parents of students from classes 9 to 12 can put forth their opinions in the meetings and those who could not, may send letters voicing their views," School Education Department, Principal Secretary, Dheeraj Kumar said in the release.

Based on the decisions taken in such meetings, the government would announce a decision on reopening schools, he said. The move to reopen schools from November 16 for classes 9 to 12 was taken following consultations with experts and also considering several holidays ahead in the academic year, the government said.

Also, educationists and parents also had requested reopening schools for students who would have to sit for public examinations. Under such circumstances, it was decided to reopen schools for higher standards since classroom learning would facilitate easy understanding and avenues like the 'Kalvi' television channel initiative or virtual learning may not give complete satisfaction of learning, the government clarified.