TN seeks vaccination status of students’ kin

Parents consent to be sought as classes 1 to 8 may reopen from Nov 1

The Tamil Nadu government is taking steps to ensure that the parents and other family members of students studying in classes 1 to 8 are vaccinated as physical classes are set to begin from November 1. The parents will be asked to furnish a consent letter allowing their children to go to school following all safety measures, and in that letter, the vaccination status of the family would also be revealed.

Offline classes for students of classes 9 to 12 are already in session and now the School Education Department has decided to start elementary and middle-level classes, too, following the advice of health experts. About 41 lakh students studying in classes 1 to 8 in about 44,000 government and private schools are expected to come to schools from November 1.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT

NEXT that cleaning and sanitisation of school premises have been started and inspections would be carried out one week ahead of the reopening.

“It would be a challenging task for the school managements and teachers to strictly follow all the standard operating procedures (SOPs), including maintaining social distance. Therefore, in a recent review meeting, the authorities from the Health Department told education officials to ensure that the parents and family members of the students should have at least got their first dose of vaccine, the official added.

He said the parents should indicate that how many members have been vaccinated in the consent letter, which would be circulated by both government and private schools.

Vaccination details of family members would be collected well before the opening of schools so that the headmasters and teachers could have enough time to advise the parents who were not inoculated.