The experts' committee constituted to review the quality of school education in Tamil Nadu will include former vice-chancellors and retired professors.
The 10-member committee, to be headed by School Education Minister N.R. Sivapathy, will have the following members — Department secretary D. Sabitha, former vice-chancellor of Anna University E. Balagurusamy, retired head of education department of the University of Madras P. S. Balasubramanian, former director at Bharathiar University S. Swaminatha Pillai, former director of CBSE G. Balasubramanian, former vice-chancellor of Thanjavur Tamil University I. Subramanian, Director of School Education P. Mani, Director of Elementary Education A. Sankar and Director of Teacher Education Research and Training K. Devarajan, who will be the member-secretary of the committee.
The panel's agenda includes identifying deficiencies in the current school syllabus and making recommendations for necessary changes, reviewing textbooks, and studying infrastructure requirements in schools.
The same committee will also carry out the revision of higher secondary syllabus, an initiative that was announced in the Assembly recently. Sub-committees may be formed for the purpose, said a senior official.
It has been a while since Tamil Nadu carried out extensive syllabus revision for class 12, the official said. “The last time we revised the higher secondary syllabus was in 2004. Trends in education are changing rapidly and it is important to ensure that plus two students transition into higher education smoothly, being fully equipped and feeling confident.”
Land requirement
The School Education Department is also in the process of forming a committee that will study land requirements for private schools and suggest changes to the norms, if required. Currently, schools within city limits should possess at least six grounds. Depending on whether the school is situated in rural or urban areas, the requirement varies.
“Most of these norms were evolved in the 1970s. We are identifying architects and other experts to tell us how much space a school requires. We want to update the norms,” the official said.
TN Curricular Framework 2012
The Department will soon have to set up a panel of experts to draft the ‘Tamil Nadu Curricular Framework 2012', one of the major announcements made in the Assembly. This vision document will largely mirror the spirit of the ‘National Curricular Framework (NCF) 2005', an official said.
“The NCF is a very good document. We want to adapt it to the specific requirements of Tamil Nadu. We will involve experts from the NCERT in this exercise,” the official said. The exercise will have to be completed by the end of the year.
