Classroom activities were revived for students of X and XII on Tuesday in government and private schools in central districts after the sanitisation of buildings and other preparatory groundwork in the preceding days.
School heads said the campus had to be cleaned up and benches and desks re-arranged. Most of the schools, apparently, chose to keep laboratory activities in abeyance.
In Tiruchi, heads of about 505 schools started off the classroom sessions for over 74,000 students in levels X and XII. The headmasters had done the groundwork in recent days to comply with the safety protocol, that included sanitisation of classrooms, and re-arrangement of benches and desks to make sure there are not more than 25 students in a classroom, R. Arivazhagan, Chief Educational Officer, Tiruchi, said.
Since the classes resumed only for X and XII, private schools were instructed to operate more number of buses so that 25 students could be seated in each. Likewise, students of government schools were instructed by their teachers to make the maximum use of their bicycles, provided free of cost by the government, as mode of transport. Headmasters have also been asked to reach out to the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation if there were more number of students who preferred to travel by buses over bicycles, the CEO said.
For the first time, the School Education Department drafted the services of BT teachers with PG qualifications to handle classes for Tenth and in case of dire need, even Plus Two.
To the maximum extent possible, a teacher will be handling a student strength of 50 in two batches simultaneously, alternating between teaching and assigning writing work for each batch, Mr. Arivazhagan said.
In Perambalur district, Collector P. Srivenkat Priya accompanied the Chairman of Teachers Recruitment Board L. Nirmalraj, and the Chief Educational Officer K. Mathivanan, for inspection of government schools at Kunnam, Melmathur, for a spot assessment of the COVID control measures undertaken in the campuses. According to officials, there was 70.64 % attendance for X standard and 68.7 % for XII standard.
In Pudukottai district, Collector P. Uma Maheshwari said 43,500 students of X and XII levels attended classes in 348 schools. The Collector visited the Raniyar Government Girls' Higher Secondary School.
Students can use the free bus passes for to and fro travel. There was no compulsion for students to come to schools.
In Thanjavur district, Collector M. Govinda Rao undertook the inspection at the Government HIgher Secondary School in Melullur in Orthanad block.
Officials made sure that the arrangements for thermal screening, physical distancing, and disinfection were in place in all the 227 goverment high and higher secondary schools in the district.
Nagapattinam Collector P. Praveen Kumar conducted a review of the COVID prevention measures in the school at a meeting of senior officials of school education department on Tuesday.
The use of sanitisers and thermal scanners in schools will be constantly monitored. There was no cause for apprehension for parents about safety of their wards, he said.
