On Thursday, Tamil Nadu decided to not open schools for classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 in November. The state cited that "reopening of schools is deferred for now."
This decision comes after a rising number of coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami said in a statement, “Reopening of schools is deferred for now. Order for re-opening of schools for classes 9, 10, 11 & 12 from Nov 16 is withdrawn. Final year students & research scholars will be allowed to attend classes and stay in hostels.”
From November 10, schools for classes 9th till 12th were supposed to resume in the state.
Earlier, colleges and universities slated to reopen from November 16, but it has been declared that the colleges and varsities in the state will reopen from December 2 only for research scholars and final year postgraduate students of science and technology department.
According to an official release by the state government, colleges for all other fields and courses will be published later whereas students who want to resume their studies from next month, the hostels would be opened for such students.
The state has had a consultation with parents of private, government and aided schools on November 9 in regards to resuming classes for the 2020-21 academic year. The government said that the parent’s opinions were mixed.
Parents of some schools agreed to resume classes while many were against the reopening of educational institutions given the rising cases of coronavirus in the state and many fear for their children. Thus, the school education department has analysed the parent's opinions holistically.
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Based on the feedback received from parents the state government said, “The order on reopening schools from November 16 for classes 9-12 is cancelled. An announcement on reopening schools will be made later based on the situation.”
Tamil Nadu recorded 2,112 COVID-19 cases and 25 deaths on Thursday pushing the state’s tally to 7,52,521 and death toll to 11,440. Chennai alone reported 565 cases. While as many as 7,22,686 people recovered from the disease.