In its drive of resuming the schools in Tamil Nadu, the state government has got the nod from 70% of parents in re-opening the schools for classes 10 and 12 after the Pongal holidays and the government is planning to open the schools for these two classes on January 18. 

The state government has instructed the schools to hold meetings with the parents of the students of classes 10 and 12 to obtain the views and opinions from them on resuming the schools after Pongal. The schools across the state had held meetings for the last two days and concluded the meetings on Thursday -January 7 during which the parents had given their response to the government on its decision of opening the schools after Pongal. 

According to reports, the state school education department has said that 70% of parents had said to open the schools for classes 10 and 12 after Pongal. The majority of parents stated to the respective schools that their children have to prepare for the upcoming board exams and the schools must be opened to help them prepare for the exams. They said that online classes lack the atmosphere of school coaching and they should learn the practical classes in schools.  

While the majority of parents had opted to brave the virus for the education of their children, some of the parents and educationalists had expressed their objections to the government to open the schools at the time when the state is challenged to tackle the spread of the COVID-19 viral infection and its new variant. The educationalists raised concerns that some of the advanced countries are imposing lockdown to contain the new variant and demanded the government not to open the schools.  

Earlier on Monday, the government has directed all the district education department officers to ensure that schools conduct meetings with the parents to draw their opinions on re-opening the schools for classes 10 and 12.  As per its directive, the schools had conducted the meeting from 10 am to 5 pm till Thursday. Most of the parents had attended the meeting and furnished their responses on whether or not to resume the schools. 

The government said that it will take a final decision to re-opening the schools for classes 10 and 12 after the Pongal holidays based on the opinions of parents. The school education department has furnished the standard operating procedures that will have to be followed once the schools are re-opened. According to reports, if the government decides to re-open the schools, it would issue an order to ban the extracurricular activities, assembly, NCC, and other events on the school premises. 

The schools in Tamil Nadu are under incessant shutdown since March owing to the COVID-19 outbreak and the closures had pushed the students to settle for a new normal of attending classes online. The students of all levels have been studying online and the spread and objections from parents and oppositions had deferred the resumption of schools. It must be noted that the government had in November 2020 organized such meetings with the parents to re-open the schools. However, the majority of parents had voiced against the resumption of schools and now, about 70% of parents had asked the government to resume the schools.