(This article is authored by Alar) 

Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi has turned heads through key educational announcements as the students from Classes 1 to 10 have begun their new academic year with complete physical learning for the first time in over two years. As they are back in the classrooms from the virtual learning mode, the school education department has been taking measures to let the students have a smooth transition. 

Along with the measures of full-fledged classroom education, the school education department has been implementing schemes along with improving steps to enhance the quality of education in the long run. When the schools reopened on June 13, Chief Minister MK Stalin has launched the 'Ennum Ezhuthum' scheme with the motive of bridging the learning gap among students of Classes 1 to 3 across the state. 

It has been launched with the goal of enabling students to acquire basic literacy and numeracy by 2025. This scheme will be implemented in all the government and government-aided schools for classes 1,2, and 3 from 2022-23. Under this scheme, the students should have the ability to read and understand the subject by the age of 8 and be able to perform basic mathematical functions. 

The students earlier learned virtually using digital devices and the continuous dependency on the internet has become inevitable for them. Considering the factor that the sudden transition into the socialized offline mode of education would be hard for the students, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi has on Tuesday made a major announcement that the popular scheme 'Illam Thedi Kalvi' (Education at Doorstep) will be extended for six months. 

The state government has introduced this scheme as studies found that the benefits of in-person classes could not be matched by the online classes and the objective of the scheme was to inject education into children at their residences. It has been reported that the scheme will be in place till the school functioning returns to complete-scale of normalcy. The minister said that though the schools have resumed, the normalcy is yet to be in the sight. 

In another major announcement, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi has given a big warning to the students against carrying mobile phones or any gadgets to classes. On Tuesday, he said, "Students are not allowed to bring their mobile phones to schools. If brought, the phones will be confiscated from the students and won't be given back."

He added that 9,494 teachers would be recruited to the government schools in the current year and this will be done to increase the enrolment of students in the government schools. Furthermore, Tamil Nadu Education Department mulls introducing its own education policy after strongly opposing the National Education Policy that was launched by the BJP regime. The state government has constituted a 13-member panel to discuss drafting the state's education policy.