CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday issued detailed guidelines for online education for schools in the state. The guidelines were framed based on those issued by the National Council of Educational Research and Training recently.
The government has said that each online session may have 30-45 minutes of curricular delivery and children with special needs may have shorter sessions. Teachers can take a maximum of 6 classes perday and 28 classes in a week and a break of at least 10-15 minutes shall be given between each session to give rest to the eyes and enable children to relax.
Classes may be scheduled between 9 am and 5 pm on all working days and all electronic communication regarding this may be restricted between 8 am and 6 pm.
The government has said that no online classes may be scheduled for pre-primary classes, not more than two sessions of 30-45 minutes a day for students in classes 1-8 and not more than four such sessions for students in classes 9-12 in a day.
Teachers have been asked to inform students about the schedule two days ahead and have a five-minute warm-up session at the start of classes. Further, teachers have been instructed to design the classesbased on the overall physical, mental and emotional well being of students.
The government has asked parents to monitor the classes and ensure that kids do not fall prey to cyber bullying.
Even as the School Education Department listed the guidelines in an order, it said that this is only advisory in nature. It was issued in response to the Madras High Court's direction to the state asking it to come out with clear guidelines.