Education Minister A. Suresh on Tuesday said schools will reopen on August 16 and function as per normal timings with strict COVID guidelines in place.
Speaking to reporters after attending a meeting, the Minister said 95% of the teachers had been vaccinated and the District Collectors had been told to give top priority to ensure that the remaining 5% of teachers get their shot by August 14. Private schools had been asked not to conduct online classes, he said, adding that all schools would be sanitised and use of masks, hand sanitisers and social distancing would be mandatory on campuses.
Earlier, addressing a meeting on “Administrative and Academic Reforms in School Education”, attended by officials of School Education and all other aligned departments, the Minister said the government wanted to take along all the stakeholders in its decision to implement the recommendations of the National Education Policy-2020. Already two rounds of discusssions had been held with representatives of various teacher organisations and Members of the Legislative Council from Graduates' constituencies.
He said to help the students pursue academic courses of their choice without the obstacles of poverty, the government had ushered in radical reforms in the education sector. The unique and innovative programmes like Nadu-Nedu and Amma Vodi had been widely appreciated by other states and even the Chairman of the NEP-2020 Dr. Kasturi Rangan, he said, informing that 15,714 schools in the State were given a makeover at a cost of ₹3,600 crore in the first phase of Nadu-Nedu, while in the second phase, another ₹4,456 crore would be spent to prove a facelift to schools.
The Minister said implementation of the NEP would help the government strengthen the pre-primary education system in the State. The Department intended to organise awareness meetings in different regions of the State on the need to implement NEP, he added.
Panchayat Raj Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, Minister for BC Welfare Ch. S. Venugopal Krishna, Principal Secretary, School Education B. Rajasekhar, Principal Secretary, Department of Women and Child Welfare, A.R. Anuradha and others were present.
