Textbooks arrive, schools start extra-classes to cover portion

MADURAI: The distribution of textbooks for the state board students have been completed in Madurai, and the government-funded schools in the city have started conducting extra-classes to cover the syllabus to compensate for the delay in the arrival of books.
Several schools said that they were conducting special classes – mainly for Class X, Class XI and Class XII – in the evenings and on Saturdays to ensure that the syllabus is covered and the students are ready to attend the mid-term tests, which is expected to begin in the end of July.
It may be recalled that there was a delay in the distribution of textbooks, for many classes, across several schools in the district for almost a month. This had led to the schools conducting classes with the help of PDF versions of books for senior classes and conducting “bridge courses” for junior classes.
However, the school teachers and headmasters have said that around 10 days back, they received 95% of books and that their target now was to compensate for the delay. “We are conducting evening special classes for the higher secondary with one subject a day.
Both teachers as well as students are finding the new syllabus for Class XII to be tough and hence we decided to conduct special classes to cover the portions,” principal of Elango Corporation Higher Secondary School M Rajendran said.
In a few other schools, the teachers said that Saturday classes were also being held in order to ensure that the required portion of the syllabus was completed before the mid-term tests.
A teacher from another corporation school in the city said that they had been conducting classes with the help of PDF versions of the textbooks that are available online.
“But full-fledged classes started only after we received almost all the books. In addition to special classes every day, we are also conducting Saturday classes so that students perform well in the mid-term tests,” the teacher added.
When it comes to Classes I to VIII, teachers said the students were not affected much because they were already being taught bridge course before the distribution of books. “Despite the delay in the arrival of books, the classes are going smooth and we are not rushing to complete the portions,” headmaster of Dr T Thirugnanam Primary School, K Saravanan said.