Chennai, Sep 25 (IANS): Tamil Nadu School Education Department on Wednesday extended the quarterly vacation for schools till October 6, following teacher organisations' request that the teachers need time to complete the valuation of quarterly examination papers.

The schools were earlier set to reopen on October 3 after schools shut on September 27 following the quarterly examinations. The School Education Department had declared a five-day break from September 27 till October 2.

The teacher organisations’ have requested a nine-day break and emphasised that to complete the valuation and tabulation of results they need time.

The School Education Department said that all schools including the government-aided schools and private schools will remain closed till October 6 and reopen on October 7.

Tamil Nadu has 37,211 government schools and 8,403 government-aided schools which educate 54.71 lakh and 28.44 lakh students respectively.

Public schools are all affiliated with the Tamil Nadu State Board, the curriculum for which is framed by the department.

Tamil Nadu has 12,631 private schools with 56.9 lakh students.

Private schools may be affiliated with either of Tamil Nadu Board of Secondary Education, Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE), Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (ICSE) or National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).

Tamil Nadu State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) is the nodal body managed by the department that is responsible for ensuring the quality of school education and provides inputs to the directorate of school education on curriculum and textbooks.