CHENNAI: Over 12,000 schools in TN on Monday, held a State-wide consultation to ascertain stakeholders’ opinion on reopening schools for students in classes 9 to 12, said a senior official from the School Education Department. The meeting however, brought in a mixed bag of responses with a few urging for a partial reopening and the others opposing it.
“The parents are so divided on the issue that I think the consultation is going to make it harder for us to make a decision,” said the official.
The feedback submitted by parents ranged from urging the schools to reopen as some feared their children might permanently drop out of education, to some of them telling the State government to compensate them with Rs 5 crore in the extreme case of their wards’ death due to Covid, post reopening.
Parents who could afford gadgets, did not want to send children to school, while the economically weaker felt that the lockdown severely affected their children’s education.
“Most of them want us to conduct practicals, tests and doubt clearing sessions,” said P Vijayalakshmi, principal of Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Virugambakkam.
She added that there was still a lot of fear among the community about the virus and barely any parent of students from the ninth standard wanted to send their children to school.
“Maybe we can open it for class 12 students on a trial basis and see.”
The principal of another matriculation school in the city said that parents were fearing a second wave of infection after the festival season.
“They want online classes to continue, and want us to hold weekly tests to prepare children for board exams,” she said. However, responses were different in government schools.
“Parents said that they were scared for their children’s life. However, they also saw no other option but to send them to schools,” said the principal of a government school in North Chennai.
“While students who study well are able to manage with Kalvi TV lessons, others have no chance to learn,” he said.
‘State should compensate us if our child dies of Covid’
The feedback submitted by parents ranged from urging schools to reopen as some feared permanent dropout of their children, to some seeking Rs 5-crore compensation from the State in case of their wards’ death due to Covid-19