The Tamil Nadu government has announced that schools will be closed for classes 9, 10 and 11 from March 22 until further orders. Hostels for these students are to be shut as well, a government order from the Revenue and Disaster Management Department said.
In the light of an increasing trend of COVID-19 cluster cases in the State, the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (DPH) has recommended that it was not advisable to continue having schools functioning for students of classes 9 to 11 from a public health point of view. For class 12 students however, who have a board examinations coming up, the DPH has said that schools can be permitted to function since the student numbers will be lower and that they will have to strictly follow all the SoPs in place.
While increased intensive testing and contact tracing is on in the State, besides micro containment in zones where clusters spring up, the emergence of clusters in a few schools has prompted the recent move.
The G.O. has also specified that the conduct of board exams for class 10 for boards other than the State Board and conducting special classes for these students as well as keeping hostels open for them will be permitted.
Digital mode of education can continue for classes 9 to 11.
Schools were reopened in Tamil Nadu for classes 10 and 12 on January 19 and in February, schools were permitted to function for classes 9 and 11 as well. Later that month however, the Tamil Nadu government had declared that all students of classes 9 to 11 in State board schools would be declared ‘all pass’.