Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi is set to hold a meeting with all Chief Educational officers (CEO) on Tuesday, August 17 to discuss reopening of schools from September 1 and to understand the challenges faced by the department. A statement released from the minister’s office confirming the meeting said that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin had announced that the government is contemplating to reopen schools for classes 9 to 12 from September 1. However, sources in the government told IANS that there are different thoughts regarding the reopening of schools in Tamil Nadu. While a large number of academicians, teachers and policymakers in education vouch for reopening of schools, the Health Department is not very keen on the move.
A senior official with the Education Department while speaking to IANS said, “The government is confused on whether to reopen classes or not and the school education minister wants to get feedback from the CEOs on the ground situation.” The state School Education Department had transferred 37 CEOs and other officials of the Education Department last week. The minister would also be discussing with the officials regarding different departments like Directorate of Government Examination, Samagra Shiksha and the Directorate of Elementary Education.
The Department of School Education had already released a prioritised syllabus for the current academic year. This is taking into consideration the fact that schools were still shut and the impact it would have on the number of working days. Meanwhile, ahead of schools reopening, the School Education Department has prepared a three-week bridge course for students of classes IX to XII. The Tamil Nadu State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) has prepared a syllabus and content for the three-week bridge course.
A senior academician with SCERT who was part of the team that prepared content for the bridge course, told IANS, “Refresher course for Class 9 will contain basic concepts that the students have learned in classes 6 to 8. This is to help teachers in teaching all the topics again."
The expert said that the refresher course for language will be mainly focused on grammar, reading and writing skills and lessons taught online will also be included as part of the bridge course. School teachers are of the opinion that the bridge course would be useful only for those students who will attend physical classes once the schools reopen on September 1.