Pvt schools fix reopening date before State’s green light

Many parents have also started complaining about receiving messages from schools about the reopening schedule. Some managements of the self-financing institutions, especially in the city and its suburbs, have already announced that schools will reopen on September 21 or 23.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that since Wednesday morning, parents started calling up the district education authorities on the messages received from the schools. “Till now the government has not issued any order or instruction on reopening schools,” he said, adding, that the high-level committee, which was constituted to look into the aspects of academic loss due to the pandemic, will submit its report to the government soon on when the school could be reopened and until then no institution should attempt to take matters into their own hands.

However, school managements are unsettled by the migration of a large number of students to government and government-aided schools or those private institutions that charge only a fraction of the fee that is levied by the leading schools, sources said.

According to KR Nandhakumar, General Secretary of Tamil Nadu Nursery, Primary, Matriculation, Higher Secondary, and CBSE Schools Association, most parents were waiting for the schools to reopen before paying the fee. “This situation has brought schools under severe financial crisis, with many unable to pay rent and electricity bills,” he said, adding, “More than 25% students also couldn’t cope with the online classes.”

S Raja, Secretary, Federation of Associations of Private Schools in Tamil Nadu, added that with fees being the only financial source for them, many of the schools were on the verge of closing down. Another issue that they faced was the inability to renew recognition certificates due to the closure of schools since March 17, Raja said. “The recognition of more than 90 per cent private schools expired on May 31, but they haven’t been able to renew the certificates yet,” he said.