With practical exams completed on Saturday for Class 12 students, teachers from government schools are hoping to get work from home option in the coming days owing to the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases across the State.
“The safety of teachers and their families should be taken into consideration and since there are no physical classes in schools at the moment, teachers can be given the option to work from home. When there is a need to distribute textbooks or other material, we can be asked to come to school then,” said S.N. Janardhanan, State Executive Committee member, School Teachers Federation of India.
Students of Class 12 alone had been attending physical classes in schools across Tamil Nadu till the State government announced that their board exams were postponed. While their practical exams were to be conducted as per schedule, students will now continue preparing for the exams from their homes as schools have been asked not to have physical classes any more.
A science teacher from Tiruvarur said most schools wound up the practical exams by Saturday and had completed uploading the marks online to the School Education Department.
In several government schools, teachers of all classes have been coming to school despite students not having been on campus for over a year.
The School Education Department is yet to announce the end of the 2020-21 academic year or that schools can close for a summer break. “Even during vacation, many of us take turns and go to school in case there is any work to be done such as distribution of material. We can implement the same now and have just two or three teachers coming in if absolutely necessary,” said P.K. Ilamaran, President, Tamil Nadu Teachers Association.