Reopening of schools in Chennai and TN to be postponed beyond January
Posted on: 18/Dec/2020 9:09:04 AM
Earlier, the school education department was planning to reopen the schools in Chennai and in TN in January. Now, they have decided against that. The reason for that was due to the presence of many Coronavirus cases in the prestigious educational institutions like IIT-M and in Anna University now.
The point is that the school students might become super spreaders of the Coronavirus and the officials of the school education department do not want this to happen.
Linking schools with PHC’s:
The authorities have got some feedback from the heath experts and from the academicians and it is now said that they discussed linking the schools with the nearby public health centre even if the schools were reopened in January.
For the sake of board examination students, the TN government was planning to reopen the schools in the month of January after the Pongal festival. This was highlighted by a senior officer belonging to the school education department.
The authorities are now thinking about postponing the reopening of the schools till normalcy is back because of the recent spike in the number of Coronavirus cases in IIT-M and in Anna University. Point is that the test results of other higher educational institutions are expected soon.
It is not possible to keep an eye on every school regarding whether all safety measures were being followed. This was also brought out by the official.
It must not be forgotten that ICMR has stated that children could be spreaders or super spreaders of Covid-19 infection. Information gathered was that the PHCs could help in conducting health camps in the nearby schools on a regular basis for periodical tracking of their health. Once the vaccines arrive, the PHC’s could also undertake the vaccination drive plus the PHCs could supply free face masks for the students of government and government aided schools. This was later mentioned by the official.
