Schools in Tamil Nadu will reopen despite an acute water shortage gripping the State. Even as parents and students have submitted representations to the government to delay the reopening until summer ends, the School Education Department has announced that reopening will be on June 3 as planned.
Parents are particularly worried about the lack of water in toilets in schools. Changing the reopening date will affect the planning of syllabus and will cause a backlog, said a senior official of the department. He, however, added that government schools that do not have sufficient water can get supply from Metro Water. Private schools will have to fend for themselves. A government school principal will have to inform Metro Water Assistant engineer in charge of the ward to get water supply, the official said.
Private schools will have to sustain on borewells and private water tankers, said K R Nandakumar, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Private Schools' Association. Most schools use water from borewells. But, private schools that have a shortage will have to spend about Rs 20,000 a month on tankers if there are roughly a thousand students, he said.PK Ilamaran, co-ordinator of Joint Action Council of Tamil Nadu Teachers' Association (JACTTA), told Express that the government had conducted an inspection in all schools to ensure that toilets and water tanks were clean. Schools are ready for students to come back now. Even if there's only a little quantity of water, the schools are clean, he said.
The new textbooks for the coming academic year will be distributed on Monday. Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation has been instructed to distribute all textbooks to schools by May 30.
Further, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) will begin training government school teachers on the revamped syllabus from the second week of June. The council has revamped the syllabus for all classes, except Standards one, six, nine and eleven for the academic year 2019-20. Revision of syllabus for these four classes was made the previous academic year.