TN schools open doors to students after 19 months

TN schools open doors to students after 19 months

Parents, Kids Excited As Classes Begin

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:01.11.2021

After studying online for the last 19 months, younger students of the state, studying in Class I to VIII, will return to schools on Monday. With this, all one crore students studying from Class I to XII in Tamil Nadu are being allowed to return to schools for the first time since March 2020.

The elementary education department has asked the schools to conduct storytelling, drawing and other creative sessions for the first two weeks to ease children back into the academic environment. Schools have devised their own ways to split students' strength into two and conduct physical classes on alternate days.

Parents whom TOI spoke to said their kids are excited to return to school after 19 months from Monday. Leeba, a parent from Tambaram, said her son Andrew Thomas, a class VIII student, was excited to return to school and had kept his school bag and shoes ready a day in advance.

Sripriya Raj, another parent from Kolathur, said her daughter is looking forward to her friends and teachers after a long gap. “Though our daughter is excited to return to school, I still have doubts about sending her to physical classes as she may get the infection,” she said.

Some teachers are planning to welcome students with sweets, chocolates and balloons to physical classes. “Our teachers will greet students with flowers, sweets, biscuits and pencil pouches,” said MM Ramalakshmi, headmistress of Presidency Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Egmore. The school is planning to reopen for Classes III, IV, V and VII on Monday and Classes I, II and VIII on Tuesday to maintain distance.

CBSE schools are also planning to restart physical classes for younger classes on November 1. "We want to reopen in a phased manner," said K Manoharan, principal of SBOA School and Junior College in Anna Nagar.

Many schools have divided their student strength into two in order to prevent over-crowding on their premises