CHENNAI: In view of the soaring temperature in many parts of the state and heat wave, the department of school education has advanced summer holidays by a week and all schools in the state will be closed from April 22. As per the original schedule, the exams for primary classes were scheduled until April 29. “Due to heat wave and high temperature prevailing in the state, we have received requests from parents for early summer holidays. As per their request, the government is decided close all types of schools from April 22,” school education minister K.A. Sengottaiyan told reporters he-re on Tuesday.
“The exams scheduled to be held from April 22 to 29 will be rescheduled. During holidays, schools should not conduct any special classes for students and we will give orders to all the schools,” he said. “Any school which violates orders will face strict action,” the minister warned. Later, the department issued a circular instructing the Chief Educational Officers to inform the government’s order on early summer vacation to all type of schools including CBSE and ICSE schools.
The circular also asked the school heads not to conduct any special classes for students in the summer holidays. When reporters asked about Neet, the minister said, “The Central government should clarify the confusion. Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisami will demand the exemption for state students.” “Meanwhile, we will also consider on how to prepare the state board students to face the competitive exams like Neet from next year,” he added. On upgrading the higher secondary syllabus he said, “We are planning to upgrade the state board syllabus on par with the CBSE syllabus. The government will make an announcement in this regard during the school education demand.”
State to recruit 6,390 teachers next year:
In a first, school education minister K.A. Sengottaiyan released the annual planner for 2017 to recruit teachers and lecturers on Tuesday. As per the planner, the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) will conduct exams to recruit 6,390 teachers, lecturers and educational officers. The board will recruit 2,110 post-graduate assistants and the exam is scheduled for July 2. For 1,188 assistant professor posts in government arts and science colleges, the interview will be held in the first week of September. The exam for government polytechnics will be held on August 13. “In future, the TRB will receive all applications only through online. The board also plans to conduct the computer-based tests for few exams,” K.A. Sengottaiyan said.
No heat wave on Tuesday, thanks to early sea breeze:
As the maximum temperatures has been crossing the 40 degree mark in the state for the last two days, the Regional Meteorological Centre on Tuesday issued a heat wave warning to North Tamil Nadu districts. In a contradiction to the RMC’s warning, all districts in the state recorded the normal temperatures, except for Vellore and Karur, which sizzled at 43 and 42.2 degrees Celsius.
The weather department had forecast the prevalence of a heat wave condition at isolated places of Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Nagapattinam, Pudukottai, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Salem, Namakkal, Erode, Karur, Tiruchirapalli, Ariyalur, Perambalur districts of North Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. As sea breeze had set in early on Tuesday, both the stations in Chennai saw a dip in the departure from the highs of last few days. While Nungambakkam recorded 36.1 degrees (departure of 2.9 degrees), Meenambakkam noted 38.6 degrees (departure of 4.4 degrees).
