Ban on street food shops near schools

Schools in Chennai, and rain affected districts in the state reopened on Monday after a one-month holiday. With the aim of safeguarding students’ health, the Director of School Education (DSE) on Monday instructed school heads in rain affected districts, including Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Cuddalore to tell students to avoid eating food items like chaat (bhel poori, pani poori etc) and remove push carts and small shops selling unhygienic food items, near the school as they fear the water used might be contaminated.

Dr S Kannappan, said that due to unprecedented rain in Chennai, neighbouring districts and Cuddalore, schools were closed for a long time. As the rain have stopped now, we have reopened the schools on Monday.

“Headmasters and principals in these districts were asked to take all necessary steps to pro¬tect students’ health. As part of this, we have ordered school heads to remove push carts and small shops selling any kind of unhygienic food items for at least a month, as the water used could be contaminated,” he said.

The schools have also been instructed to create awareness among children about the need to drink hot water to keep them safe from water related diseases. Schools have been asked to provide hot water to students, wherever possible. “We have also ordered schools to clean their water tanks and water bodies immediately, and also to chlorinate the water used in the school,” Dr Kannappan said. 

Meanwhile, many schools in the city plan to extend their working hours ranging from 40 minutes to one hour, besides working on Saturdays in an attempt to complete the syllabus in time to help students prepare for the ensuing half yearly and annual examinations. 

J Ajeeth Prasath Jain, senior principal of Bhavan’s Rajaji Vidyashram, Chennai said as they had only two and a half months left for the final exams they plan to extend school working hours by about 40 minutes for all classes except 11 & 12. For these classes, school would be extended for an hour after the school hours.

B Purushothaman, correspondent and principal of Everwin group of schools said they had decided to keep their institution open on Saturdays. “We have requested the government to allow matriculation schools to close for year-end vacation by April 20 rather than the usual April 12 so that exams can be extended. Through the private schools’ association, we have urged CBSE to conduct separate exams for students in TN as our state has been devastated by rain and flood,” he said. 

During the one month leave some schools contacted students to provide them home work to keep them engaged, and to ensure easy completion of syllabus when schools reopened.

Ready reckoner to help students ace exams 

The school education department has prepared “minimum learning material,” a ready reckoner for class 10 students of govt and its aided schools, that contain important questions for students to study well. 

While taking part in the inauguration of health camp at the Presidency Girls Higher Secondary School in Egmore on Monday, D Sabitha, the school education secretary said the state school education department has prepared minimum learning material (MLM), which would help students to prepare well for exams.

“We will distribute MLM to all students of Class 10 of govt and its aided schools including those from rain-affected districts, this week. These will help students score higher marks,” she said. Schools would conduct special classes within school hours for students in classes 10 and 12. 

The decision to conduct classes on Saturday or not has been left to school heads. Health and Family Welfare department provided 20 mobile health vans to conduct health camps in schools in Chennai, the school education secretary said. Health camps would be conducted in 40 schools every day. “We will provide psychological counselling to students with the help of counsellors from tomorrow,” Sabitha said. 

The school education department organised camps in 132 centres in rain affected districts, including 54 in Chennai to give school certificates to those who lost them in the flood.