As a precautionary measure to contain the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of Covid-19, the Tamil Nadu Government has decided to extend the closure of schools to safeguard the students. According to the latest orders issued by Tamil Nadu state government authorities, operations for students of Class 10th to 12th have been paused until January 31, 2022. Furthermore, the government has also directed all the schools of the state to postpone the exams for all the classes.
The Tamil Nadu State Government landed on this decision today, on January 16, 2022 due to a spurt in the Covid-19 cases across the state. During the announcement of school closure, the state government authorities informed that as the exams starting from January 19 have been postponed, new exam dates will be announced later after thoroughly reviewing the situation in the state later.
Earlier, this month, the Tamil Nadu Government had pulled the plug on offline classes for students of Class 1 to 8, while Class 10, 11 and 12 students were being called to the school premises for administering vaccine doses. Following this, they had extended the lockdown phase in schools till January 20. Further revising the order on Sunday, January 16 and after witnessing the grim Covid-19 situation in the state, the Tamil Nadu Government issued the aforesaid guidelines. Also, the SOPs mentioned during the earlier orders will remain the same.
Notably, many stakeholders were demanding for the closure of schools for a prolonged period of time, due to the fact that the Covid-19 situation is worsening day by day. India has registered over 2 lakh cases in the past 24 hours, with the third-wave of the pandemic knocking the door. Vaccination drives of the country have completed one year today, on January 16, 2022. After administering vaccine doses to both the frontline workers and the adults of the general population, now the vaccination drive for children aged between 15-18 years has been expedited in all states, including Tamil Nadu.