Unable to cross borders, students struggle to collect hall tickets

Chennai

The State government had ordered all school managements to distribute hall tickets to Class 10 students from Monday, for which the teachers, including those from private institutions, were asked to report for duty.

However, as the schools were closed from March 17 ahead of the lockdown and the SSLC exams originally scheduled for March 27 were postponed indefinitely, those working or studying in other districts had returned to their native districts, said a senior school education department official.

With Chennai reporting the most number of coronavirus cases in the State, thousands of students and teachers who are studying/working in schools in the neighbouring districts were unable to cross the district borders, the official said.

“Though special buses were arranged from Chennai to districts such as Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Vellore, many teachers complained that they were sent back by police officials deployed in the border areas of those districts,” he said. In the absence of transport facility, students who had enrolled in schools located in other districts could not get the hall tickets.

A government school teacher, who left from Chennai to Tiruvannamalai along with about 30 other teachers on a special bus, said they were not allowed to enter the district in the morning. “The security officials said they do not have any specific permission to allow people, especially those coming from Chennai, to enter the district. Despite showing our identity card, they did not allow us,” he claimed.

The School Education department official also claimed that the turnout of students was less even in schools located within Chennai. More than nine lakh students are expected to attend the board exam that is scheduled to commence from June 15.