Teachers turn trainers: Day after cancelling board exams, State ropes in around 10K city teachers for corona related tele-counselling

Chennai

The order, given by the School Education Department on Wednesday, has surprised several thousand teachers working in government and government-aided schools across the State capital.

A senior official from the Directorate of School Education told DT Next that as the teachers do not have much work in government schools without students, they were asked to report to their respective educational zonal office.“More than 30 teachers will be deployed in each zone to attend calls and give counselling not only to coronavirus patients, but also clearing all doubts raised by general public with regard to the disease,” he said adding teachers will be working on shift basis, which is 8 am to 2 pm and 2 pm to 8 pm regularly

Pointing out that the teachers, who have been involved in answer sheets evaluation for Class 12, will be exempted from the duty, the official said, on rotation basis about 10,000 teachers will be involved as of now for which small training sessions will be conducted.“As most of the teachers had already assisted police personnel in carrying out field works including creating awareness among the people to safeguard themselves from the coronavirus attack, training will not be a big issue,” he added.

According to the official, the counselling work for the teachers includes creating awareness among the people about the implication of the pandemic, to impart knowledge of social distancing and informing the public about the fine involved for not wearing face masks.