Schools cannot collect fees from students for online classes: Tamil Nadu Education Minister

Tamil Nadu government has asked all the schools not to charge any fees from students for online classes. Strict action will be taken against those who do not follow the instructions.

Tamil Nadu government has directed all schools in the state to not collect any fees from students for attending online classes.

The announcement was made by Tamil Nadu Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan after the department received complaints regarding schools collecting fees. He asked schools that they can conduct online classes without asking students and teachers to be physically present on its campus. Earlier, some reports also said that online classes were banned.

Meanwhile, private schools associations have requested the government to consider the reopening schools in a phased manner after the Tamil Nadu class 10 Board exams.

The Tamil Nadu 10^th board examinations were scheduled to be held from June 1 to June 12. However, it has now been decided to be held from June 15 to June 25, the minister said in a statement.

As per the Tamil Nadu 10th Date Sheet 2020, exams were initially supposed to be conducted from March 27, however, due to coronavirus outbreak, they were postponed.

Also Read: Tamil Nadu Class 10 Board exam 2020 rescheduled again; check new dates here

K R Nandakumar, General Secretary of Tamil Nadu Nursery, Primary, Matriculation, Higher Secondary, and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) school association said: “that the schools should re-open only for classes 10, 11, and 12 initially, as students have to face board exams next year.”

The government has also launched a mobile app ‘Vagupparai Nokkin’ for school inspection purposes. Officials doing inspections such as block education officers and block resource teachers can record their visit digitally using the app so the department will get to know the number of teachers, students, and available facilities on a particular campus immediately.