No mobile phones in schools: TN Minister for School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi

Tamil Nadu Minister for School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi has strictly warned students against carrying mobile phones to school. Speaking at an event on Tuesday, June 14, he said that if students were seen with mobile phones inside the classrooms, the phones would be confiscated and would not be returned. He also spoke about other initiatives taken by the government to ensure quality education in the state's government schools.

"Students are not allowed to bring mobile phones to school. If students bring their mobile phones, we will confiscate them and will not return them. We have already announced this. In addition, there still exist distractions for students who have studied online for two years. To overcome this, we advise students to go to classes only after their minds are refreshed when the schools start," he said, as reported by ENS.

The Minister then spoke about the government's decision to conduct sexual awareness programmes in schools. The programmes will begin on the first day of the academic year, which started on June 13, Monday. "Various departmental officers, including police and NGOs will conduct awareness classes for Class XI and XII students for the first five days. Only after this, the normal classes will be conducted. Similarly, classes for Class I to X students will be conducted after their minds are refreshed," he said.

Anbil Mahesh, earlier in May, had directed all government, government-aided and private schools in the state to install complaint boxes for children to lodge complaints of sexual harassment in the schools. He had also directed the District Education Officer to depute an officer of the state Education Department to check the complaint boxes once every 15 days. The move came after several such cases were reported from Tamil Nadu schools.

Further, the Minister spoke about the ongoing admissions. He said that the enrollment of students in the government schools had increased this year, compared to last year. "Therefore, we are improving the infrastructure facilities. We plan to recruit 9,494 teachers in the coming academic year. In addition, though schools are reopened, there is still a need for the Illam Thedi Kalvi scheme. So, we have extended it for the next six months," he added. It may be noted that the Illam Thedi Kalvi scheme is an initiative of the state's School Education Department aimed "at rectifying the learning gaps and losses of students in grades one through eight in government schools during periods of a general outbreak of corona epidemic," as stated on the scheme's official website.

He also spoke at length about Tamil Nadu's legal battle against NEET. "We hope to succeed with this," he said. The state has been opposed to the NMC-approved, NTA-based medical entrance test for a long time now. The School Education Minister was speaking after the event in which he distributed various welfare assistance worth Rs 60.22 lakh to 468 beneficiaries under the East Assembly constituency at a private school campus in Tiruchy. District Collector S Sivarasu, Tiruchy (East) MLA Inigo Irudayaraj and many other officials were present at the event, as reported by ENS.