Tamil Nadu Minister for School Education K. A. Sengottaiyan on Wednesday announced that government schools across the state will follow the pattern of online classes for students as being taught in private schools from July 13. The decision to begin online classes for TN's government schools comes at the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the government not looking to put the lives of students at risk since the spread of the disease is still high in the state. 

With the state currently under lockdown till July 31, there has been no statement made by the government as to when schools in Tamil Nadu will reopen. Based on the state's decision to begin online classes from July 13, it is believed reopening of schools will take some more time until the spread of COVID-19 is contained. There is also talk now among many regarding the accessibility for online classes for students in government schools. There is considerable discussion on social media in regard to government school students managing to afford computers, laptops and an internet connection to pursue their classes online. 

Minister Sengottaiyan further announced that a statement will be made later tonight regarding Class 12 students who could not write their exams this year. Around 8.5 lakh students had appeared for Class 12 board examinations for the academic year 2019-20, which began on March 2 and concluded on March 24 with nearly 32,000 students not being able to sit for their exams due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It is to be noted that it was also announced last month that the printing of textbooks for the academic year 2020-21 had been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.