All teachers to be vaccinated before reopening of schools in Tamil Nadu

With the number of coronavirus cases decreasing in all the districts, the School Education Department has been conducting a series of review meetings with health experts and other stakeholders on the possibilities of commencing classes for the students. 

“As the Union government is yet to take a decision on vaccinating school students, it was decided to inoculate all teachers to ensure safety before reopening schools. accordingly, all district education officials were instructed to issue circular to headmasters of government schools and principals of private institutions to ensure all the teachers were vaccinated against COVID-19,” said a senior official. 

Claiming that at present about 75 per cent teachers received at least one vaccine dose, the official said about 90 per cent teachers would be covered within July or the first week of August. The district education authorities would keep track of the teachers to ensure that they would get the second shot of vaccine at the earliest, he added. 

“All school managements were instructed to ensure that the details of teachers who are vaccinated are entered in Educational Management Information System (EMIS), the common online platform connecting government and schools,” he added. 

The official also said that all the teachers, especially those who work in the government schools even at the elementary level, were asked to report for duty regularly so that they would be ready to take classes if the institutions are reopened as soon as normalcy is restored.