Schools Reopen, CM Greets Students

Chennai: Amidst cheer, hope and enthusiasm, school students across the State returned to classrooms after an extended summer vacation with Chief Minister M K Stalin wishing them and their teachers all the best in the new academic year while the government made arrangements in their campuses for opening bank accounts and Aadhar registration and related services.

The Chief Minister, in a message on X, urged parents and teachers to ensure the happiness of the students as they step into classrooms once again by taking care of their physical and mental wellbeing and encouraging them in playing sports and also reading.

Accordingly, the schedule for students will also be revised this year with an allocation of 20 minutes every day after lunch for reading with a stress on literary, science and environmental activities for Classes 9 and 10. Plans are also there to provide special coaching in English language for those in primary classes.

The academic year with 220 working days, which is 10 days more than the earlier schedules, will go on till 27 April, 2025, while the examination dates for the public examinations for Classes 10 and 12 will be announced later.

The summer vacation was stretched initially in view of the Lok Sabha elections, which anyway concluded with the declaration of results on June 4, and then because of popular demand to defer the reopening date due to the heat wave that swept through the State.

When students of government, aided and private schools began the new academic year on Monday, they were welcomed with sweets, chocolates and flowers and the news that they need not step out for Aadhar card services like registration and renewal of biometric details as 770 Aadhar registering machines had been provided through ELCOT.

Those operating the machines would visit all the higher secondary, high, middle and primary schools in all the 414 education divisions in the State and open camps for offer all Aadhar related services free of cost, which is expected to benefit 60 lakh school students in the year 2024-25.

School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi had inaugurated the Aadhaar registration facility for students at a higher secondary school in Coimbatore district in the earlier academic year on February 23. The services would continue this year in the rest of the schools.

Students from Class 1 to 12, who are desirous of opening bank accounts would also be able to do it in their campuses this year as bank officials would visit the schools for the purpose, a move that would benefit 66.3 lakh students studying in 4917 government and aided schools.

As students returned to their classrooms today, teachers in certain schools received the children with chocolates.

Meanwhile, Handloom and Textile Minister R Gandhi presided over a meeting at the Secretariat to plan for the distribution of school uniforms for students in the new academic year and also reviewed the distribution so far. The uniforms are expected to be distributed in the first week.