July lockdown stalls Education dept plans

Chennai

A senior official from the Directorate of School Education told DT Next that apart from reopening of schools, his department was preparing to commence several academic activities, including new admission process in the State-run institutions in the mid of July.

“However, due to the steady increase in the number of coronavirus cases across the State, especially in Chennai, the government had to impose another phase of lockdown, forcing us to postpone all the academic schedule for July,” he said.

Stating that there would be another rescheduling process to carry out academic related works, the official said after seeing the current situation, it would also be difficult for the authorities to fix an exact time to commence the school activities as there’s no guarantee when normalcy would return.

He also said that the Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board, which is coming under the School Education Department, is also in a fix to reschedule counselling process for teachers seeking promotions and transfers.

Similarly, a senior official from the Higher Education Department said as the results of Class 12 Board exams is expected in July first or second week, the Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE) should have started preparing notifications for new engineering admissions. “However, it would now be postponed to August,” he added.

The official said that like DOTE, the Directorate of Collegiate Education could not start the admission process for Arts and Science colleges due to the shutdown. “However, the Collegiate department had recently released a booklet for the students on the information about colleges and its fees structure for 2020,” he added.

Sources from Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) added that it has to reschedule several exams and postpone certificate uploading in connection with the recruitment of Junior Scientific Officer and Combined Engineering Services.