The Tamil Nadu Higher Education Department has issued a major order directing all faculty members to return to colleges as the online classes for arts and science and engineering colleges are scheduled to begin from August 9. The order has come at a high time when the state government has proposed to reopen the schools for Classes 9 to 12. 

According to reports, the Higher Education Department has directed all faculty members to attend colleges on all working days without fail from August 9 as the online classes are all set to begin. In a letter, the department said, "Covid protocols and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) prescribed by the government from time to time should be followed in the campus." 

The letter further said, "It is also instructed that the faculty members of government, government-aided arts and science colleges, engineering colleges shall attend the college on all working days without fail." Recently, the higher education department has announced that online classes for the 2021-22 academic year for all students, except first-year students, will begin on August 9. 

It has been reported that the college-level admissions in the government arts and science colleges will begin after August 10 and so far, more than two lakh applications have been received against one lakh seats available in government colleges. The reports also say that the faculty members would be mandated to get vaccinated against Covid-19 completely. Speaking to a news agency, the president of Tamil Nadu Government Collegiate Teachers Association said that the government colleges will need all faculty members to conduct admissions for undergraduate programmes. 

He said that the Tamil Nadu Government Arts and Science Admissions committee would send the course-wise rank list to individual colleges and the faculty members need to call each and every student to confirm the admissions. On the other hand, the state government has signalled a possible resumption of physical classes, not for every class, but only for the secondary and higher secondary students from Classes 9 to 12. Chief Minister MK Stalin has on Friday said that the government has planned to reopen the schools for Classes 9 to 12 from September 1. 

According to reports, the Chief Minister has arrived at a decision after reviewing the Covid-19 situation along with the health experts and government officials on Friday, while discussing the lockdown extension. In a statement on Friday, MK Stalin has said that the health experts had unanimously expressed their opinion that schools should reopen. On the front of why the experts want schools to be reopened in the state, the Chief Minister said that the experts are of assertions to reopen the schools by stating that children have been under depression since they continue to remain indoors and it has created a gap in the learning process among students.

The experts had also pointed out that a majority of students could not attend online classes due to network issues. If the government officially announces the resumption, how the schools will be functioning? The schools will be mandated to conduct classes only for students from Classes 9 to 12 with the Covid-19 guidelines. The Chief Minister further said, "Considering the opinion of various sections, it has been proposed to reopen the schools for classes 9, 10,11, and 12 with 50 per cent of students from September 1 by adhering to the Covid-19 standard operating procedure.