The Tamil Nadu School Education Department has issued further recommendations on how schools could have refresher courses for senior students, who came back to campuses from September 1.
Students of Classes IX to XII began attending classes in person last week after schools reopened. To address learning gaps due to the absence of in-person classes, the department had earlier recommended that refresher courses could be conducted.
Teams of officials have been visiting schools and taking stock of how classes have been progressing. The department has recommended that school heads work in close coordination with subject teachers to assess where students are experiencing learning gaps, and work on addressing them appropriately.
Students, who were unable to participate in online classes, will be given special attention to assess their learning levels, and they will be put them through a refresher course accordingly. A syllabus for refresher courses was prepared by the State Council for Educational and Research Training (SCERT) ahead of the reopening of schools.
In a circular to all Chief Educational Officers, the Commissioner of School Education has detailed what the refresher courses will entail, and how they can be implemented in schools based on the students’ needs. For all subjects, teachers have been asked to assess if the students are aware of the fundamental concepts in subjects before moving onto critical concepts in lessons.
The syllabus for the refresher course first recommends going over fundamental concepts in maths, Tamil and English for students of Classes IX and X, before going on to cover basic and critical concepts in the subjects from their previous year. For science and social science, basic and critical concepts of the previous year will be dealt with.
As schools have differing schedules owing to a few campuses calling select batches on alternate days, they have been asked to put in place an academic plan that works best for the needs of their students.
