Schools across the district are getting spruced up to accommodate students in full strength as the academic year officially kick starts on Monday.
Speaking to The Hindu, Chief Educational Officer, Madurai, K. Karthika, said that works had been undertaken to clean up school campuses along with the civic body since the past week.
“Meetings have been held with the heads of government and government-aided schools who were instructed to ensure completion of clean-up works of water tanks, toilets, laboratories, playgrounds etc.,” she said.
Ms. Karthika said that textbooks will be issued to the students on the reopening day and the books have reached schools.
School Management Committees and Parent Teachers’ Associations had been encouraged to hold awareness campaigns in their areas with an aim to strengthen student enrolments, she said.
Speaking on COVID-19 spread, she said that school authorities had been instructed to strictly abide by the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) prescribed by the State government.
‘It is an exciting feeling and at the same time a sense of normalcy fills in as school is reopening with full strength as usual. With newly-painted blackboards and spruced-up school premises, teachers are waiting to welcome students, including new admissions for the academic year,” said A Manimegalai, Headmistress of Government High School at Valayankulam in Madurai.
We had been instructed to make concepts reach out to children in a creative way rather than encouraging rote-learning, she added.
Meanwhile, Collector S. Aneesh Sekhar inspected the District Central Library in Simmakkal and Umaru Pulavar High Secondary School at Nelpettai here on Saturday.
Mr. Aneesh Sekhar sought information on the different genres of books in the library, the number of readers who visit the library on a daily basis and the most preferred genre of books etc.
He also enquired whether school and college students visit the library. The librarian was also asked whether the competing candidates were coming to the library and books related to the competitive examinations were included in the library.
He instructed the officials to ensure cleanliness on the library premises and undertake cleaning process on a daily basis.
The Collector also visited the Umaru Pulavar High Secondary School at Nelpettai and inspected the cleaning works undertaken ahead of school reopening on June 13.
Madurai South MLA M. Bhoominathan and other government officials were present during the inspection.
