Workload increases for teachers due to school closures

---

10.01.2022

The transition to online-offline-online classes during the pandemic has created an additional strain on teachers. Educators are back to facing challenges including increased working hours, parental interference in online classes, and distraction from other non-academic activities that they have to carry out at the behest of government departments.

Many teachers feel that it is important for children and teachers to return to physical schools as the teaching-learning process in hybrid mode can be taxing for both teachers as well as students. “The productivity is being affected and the environment is not conducive at home and many students also don’t take online classes seriously. Sometimes parents and grandparents interfere and disrupt the teaching-learning process. At times, teachers can hear cooker whistles in the background and they have to put students on force mute. It’s a bumpy terrain for both the students and teachers and but we don’t have any choice,” says Alka Kapur, principal, Modern Public School, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi.

Some state governments have asked teachers to take online classes from school premises even as the students study from home. “Teachers are expected to dispense classes from the school untilt he circumstances change. We understand that teachers too are going through a tough time due to changing modes of learning at regular intervals. Schools have to abide by government rules and regulations and carry out academic tasks accordingly,” says Aloysius D'mello, principal, Greenwood High International School, Bengaluru.

As schools begin to shut across the city, students, teachers, and parents have to again adapt to remote learning. “It is a difficult transition for families who were just getting used to a different routine and enjoying the pre-Covid normalcy of attending school and work in person. Teachers as well, are once again impacted and will have to adapt to teaching remotely. We have learnt a lot in the past two years as educators, and schools are oftensafer environments than public places that children continue to visit,” says Shweta Sastri, managing director, Canadian International School, Bengaluru.

 

STORY BOARD

students take MBBS

---

ARUN RAM


When chief minister M K Stalin convened a meeting of all legislature parties on Saturday to buttress the demand for repealing the National Eligibility-cum-En- trance Test (NEET), the lone voice of dissent was that of BJP legislator Vanathi Srinivasan. After walking out of the meeting, she told reporters that the government should focus on preparing school students for the test instead of opposing it. That’s some sane advice.

Here is what the DMK and the other parties that participated in Saturday’s meeting say: NEET gives an undue advantage to the economically well-off who can afford special coaching, and it denies equal opportunity to poor students, especially those in the state government schools. Disheartened students have been ending their lives. NEET should go.

Vanathi must have been duty bound to defend the Centre that her party rules, but beyond the political part of the argument (that the DMK-inclusive UPA government had initiated the entrance exam), she made sense when she spoke about equipping students for the test. To correct the BJP leader on curriculum revision (she said Tamil Nadu has not upgraded school syllabi for 12 years), the state did revise its school syllabus between 2017 and 2019 broadly on the lines of NCERT, but there is a long way to go before we can say our children have equal opportunities in school to crack entrance tests.
What could be done faster is something no politician talks about:

 Rationalising MBBS fees. Some of the deemed universities charge MBBS students more than 25 lakh a year. This means about ₹1. 5 crore to be a medical graduate. Now, how many of us can afford that? Will the government bring in a law to implement an affordable ceiling for medical course fees in the state? It is one of the worst kept secrets that leaders of several parties, including the DMK, own medical colleges that charge exorbitant fees. And this is the height of hypocrisy of those who speak of social justice in medical education.

Here’s the real social injustice: A student from a rich family can get a seat even if she has scored 138 (the qualifying mark in the open category last year), while a student who scored four times higher will not make the cut for a seat in a government medical college (598 was the cut-off in the open category). In other words, money can get you a medical seat that marks can’t.
The Saturday meet, which “decided to explore legal options”, was at best a symbolic protest that yielded nothing. 

After the Supreme Court insisted that all states should follow NEET, the Tamil Nadu government was either ill-advised or posturing when it passed the Permanent Exemption Bill for NEET in Tamil Nadu in September last year. Or probably it was an exercise in face-saving after the DMK made abolition of NEET its poll promise, which it followed up with the appointment of the A K Rajan committee that promptly submitted a report the government wanted.

Whether NEET is the best possible eligibility test for medical education is a moot question, but experts feel the Tamil Nadu NEET abolition bill may not stand legal scrutiny. While the government questions the governor’s inaction over the bill, the Constitution seems to be silent over the powers of the governor to act or choose not to act. If the anti-NEET crusade has to be successful, the only way is political action by the Centre. And that would mean revamping the medical admission process in the country because making an exemption for one state would open a Pandora’s box. Jallikattu was different. NEET is a different bull game.

arun. ram@timesgroup. co

m

 

Toll collection on ORR from today

---

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: User fee collection at toll plazas on the newly-constructed Chennai Outer Ring Road will begin on Monday.

Tamil Nadu Road Development Corporation (TNRDC), which constructed the 60-km stretch between Vandalur and Minjur, recently notified the toll rates for each of the four plazas at Varadharajapuram, Kolappancheri (near Nazarathpet), Nemmelicheri and Chinnamullaivoyal

Accordingly, cars, jeeps or other fourwheelers should pay ₹17 t o ₹109 for a single trip from Monday. The rates will be subjected to revision.

FASTag scanners have been fixed at all toll lanes, and vehicles without FASTag stickers entering these lanes will be made to pay double the toll fee. Similarly, overloaded vehicles will pay ten times the toll fee as penalty.

 

Spike in arrivals from abroad at airport in Nov, Dec

---

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

10.01.2022

Chennai: The surge in Covid-19 cases has drastically affected travel plans of many in the last few days, but November and December raked in good passenger traffic for airlines and the city airport.

Passenger traffic, especially international, increased at a faster rate despite restrictions and a need for testing, in the last two months. However, domestic traffic growth remained sluggish.

The airport handled more international travelers after Delhi and Mumbai while it lagged far behind in domestic traffic than the five other metro airports. The airport handled 10. 75lakh passengers in November and 12. 93lakh passengers in December. There were 1. 82lakh international travellers in November while it increased to 2. 46lakh passengers in December. The number of domestic passengers was 8. 93lakh in November and 10. 4lakh in December.

There is a faster growth of international passengers (up by 65%) when compared to the same period last year.

An airport official said that there is a good demand for international travel because people from other towns are boarding flights in Chennai. "The launch of flights to Singapore gave a boost to passenger traffic,” he added.

S Bhaskar of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) said flights to UAE, Saudi Arab and Singapore are packed, while Maldives remain popular. “The demand is huge on the international sector because of limited number of flights,” he added. However, there is a lull in the domestic sector because airlines have cut frequencies or are combining flights based on the traffic on many sectors.

"Airlines have withdrawn many flights to smaller cities and have redeployed them on profitable routes. There are not enough flights to Port Blair, Mumbai, Ahmedabad as there used to be earlier,” he added. Airlines and airports authorities expect a dip in the number of domestic passengers in the coming days. “People are likely to put off their leisure travel plans after the Pongal holidays because of a surge in Covid-19 cases,” said an airline official.

 

Surge in cases, lack of planning affects students

---

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

10.01.2022

Chennai: Thousands of college students are worried about their exams and careers as a lack of planning from the higher education department owing to the Covid-19 third wave threatens to offset their career goals.

Sankarbabu, a final-year engineering student from a city college, worried about a possible delay in semester exams and completing his course on time. He got placed in a software company with a rider that he should clear all his exams without arrears.

Ankita Kerketta from Andaman and Nicobar islands, a first-year MSc student in a city college, is stuck in her hostel and awaiting the announcement for her exams. She says she will return to her native place only if her college allows her to take her exams in online mode. She is not sure if she would be able to return to the city to write physical mode exams.

Colleges say that the syllabus was completed last month but the government gave two months’ time for semester exams without considering the Covid-19 situation. Now, there is an uncertainty regarding the exams.

“If the exams had got over in December 2021, I could have focussed on the next semester. Now, I have to study for the last semester and the next semester at the same time. I’m not sure when physical mode exams will be conducted,” Sankarbabu said.

A senior professor from a city college said that postponing exams by two months after completing the syllabus has created uncertainty among final year students. This could have been discussed with academicians before a decision was taken.

Higher education minister K Ponmudi had earlier granted two months time to students to prepare for physical mode exams. The state government also postponed semester exams for all colleges, including autonomous colleges and deemed universities to January 21.

Because of this decision, many colleges repeated what they taught online in physical mode classes as well.

“The lack of planning on the part of higher education department has created uncertainty among students. It was a good move to conduct physical mode exams. But they wasted a month when exams could be conducted and students could have moved on to the next semester,”said a principal who spoke on a condition of anonymity.

S Vaidhyasubramaniam, vice-chancellor of Sastra, said final year students should be given priority over other students. He requested the government not to return to online mode of exams citing a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Meanwhile, students from Class X and Class XIIcontinue to attend physical classes despite an increase in cases.

Hemavathi, a Class XII student from a city school said she was more worried about her board exams than the rapidly spreading Covid-19 cases in Chennai.

 

Time taken to get RTPCR results shoots up in city

---

Omjasvin.MD@timesgroup.com

10.01.2022

Chennai: While it should generally take four to six hours for Covid-19 RTPCR test results to arrive, for many residents of the city, results are being delayed by one to three days.

Lakshmi S, a resident, said her father who had given a test on Wednesday in a private lab received his results only on Saturday. “We took a test in a private hospital. We could not wait for the test results. We went ahead with the CT scan and began his treatment,” she said.

Similarly, another 84 year-old woman, who got tested in a government hospital on Wednesday, received the results on Friday. “After my mother tested positive, the corporation officials visited my house in Velachery and took swabs of my wife and children on Saturday. We have not received the results till Sunday night,” said a resident, who did not want himself or the government hospital to be named.

While Covid-19 norms say a person can be discharged if they observe no fever after three days of testing positive in an RTPCR, a delay in results may end up the quarantine period for the patients. The delay has its mental aspects too.

A doctor from the microbiology department of Stanley GH said there was a rise in samples coming in from the corporation lately. “We process the day's samples fully. A day’s delay in RTPCR status can only occur in one or two cases,” the doctor said.

City corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said more than 30,000 tests were being done in the city lately.

This is an increase from the 20,000-odd tests done till last week.

“To our knowledge, results are given at the right time and there has been no delay. In case of specific private labs delaying the results, we will follow up with them,” he added.

 

Lockdown lessons on learning outcomes

---

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

10.01.2022

Chennai: The school education department will impart training based on learning outcomes to teachers between January 10 and February 25.

The training will take place during the closure of schools for Classes I to IX owing to a spike in Covid-19 cases. The program will be organized in hi-tech labs in government high schools at block level.

“The State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has defined learning outcomes for each lesson. To clarify doubts on learning outcomes and to make sure each student achieve those learning goals, further training is needed,” a circular from the school education department said.

Teacher associations, however, opposed a move to conduct training for more than 100 teaches at a location when the Covid-19 cases are set to reach the peak in the coming weeks.

“When Covid-19is spreading fast, asking teachers to assemble at block-level in one place may result in spread of Covid-19 infection.

It isn't possible to ensure social distancing within the hi-tech labs. Hence, the training program needs to be conducted after the Covid-19 cases subside,” said P KIlamaran, president of Tamil Nadu Teachers Association.