TN mulls giving free face masks to govt school students

At present, around 38 lakh students are studying in more than 45,000 government and government-aided schools from Class 9 to Class 12. More than 1.53 lakh teachers have been taking classes to these students. Similarly, about 2 lakh students are studying in various government’s Arts, Science, Vocational, Engineering, and Polytechnic colleges. Accordingly, about 20,000 lecturers and professors have been deployed to train these students. While authorities have already issued orders to carry out sanitisation works in the State-run schools and colleges, the School Education and Higher Education Department are mulling to distribute free face masks for poor students, who would not be able to afford it.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that since the State had already launched and distributed free reusable face masks to ration card holders, enough stock was available for the students. “It requires less time for producing masks and it can be distributed evenly,” he added.

“Besides, the government is also planning to introduce a new system for the students to attend the classes on a rotational basis,” he said.