An expert committee constituted to examine the syllabus/textbooks and the ways and means to implement the common curriculum in Tamil Nadu is of the unanimous opinion that both the common syllabus and the Samacheer Kalvi textbooks, as envisaged under the Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act, will neither provide equity nor quality education in its present version.
The law was enacted by the previous DMK government.
In its nearly 600-page report submitted to the High Court on Tuesday, the panel said, “The Samacheer Kalvi textbooks cannot be used for the academic year 2011-12 as they require a lot of alterations, modifications and changes in order to provide good quality education to all the children in the State of Tamil Nadu.”
While asking the Tamil Nadu government to continue implementation of the Samacheer Kalvi scheme (uniform system of school education) for Standards I and VI for 2011-12, the Supreme Court on June 14 directed the government to form the expert committee in respect of other classes. The committee should submit a report to the Madras High Court. After receiving the report, the High Court's Division Bench should hear the main writ petitions and dispose them of expeditiously on a day-to-day hearing. Following the Supreme Court direction, the High Court's First Bench comprising Chief Justice, M.Y.Eqbal and Justice T.S.Sivagnanam said hearing will commence on July 7 and it will continue till the lawyers conclude their arguments.
Earlier, the Advocate-General, A.Navaneethakrishnan, mentioned before the Bench about the submission of the report to the Registrar-General, S.Vimala, who produced the report before the court.
The committee, headed by the Chief Secretary, Debendranath Sarangi, said textbooks were of low standard. It was concerned that while preparing the syllabus and textbooks, the State government had not kept in kind the recommendations of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) and NCERT. There was absolutely no scope for children in rural and urban areas to understand and absorb the main principles and concepts of the subjects from textbooks in the present form.
The common syllabus was a deviation from NCF's norms with respect to the subjects to be taught in the primary and upper primary stage. “This would not only result in overburdening the child, but would also not help the child to experience the joy of learning.” The syllabus has omitted to incorporate life skills/survival skills. Analytical thinking had been neglected. The development of common syllabus keeping higher board as a model could not be done without giving sufficient time for the student to have a smooth transition.
The other features were that the syllabus lacked in gradation; it had been framed in a hurried manner without considering the basic requirements and there was neglect of age appropriate learning. The textbooks did not encourage thinking process and no effort had been made by the State to train teachers.
Samacheer kalvi is a wonderful plan. I welcome this plan.please support this scheme and encourage our children. Don't try to spoil our children's education.
There we go again. Revenge politics. This is only the start. We will probably see more of this kind in future and more so because the current State government has full majority in the assembly. Me, am not a supporter any particular political camp. But it is irritating to see that politicians put their interests and ego over the interests of the common man EVERY TIME. Maybe this government will ousted in the next election but it will be the same story all over again. The public need to wake up and realise that if they keep voting for apples for oranges and vice versa, they will get the same crap all over again. Think different people when you vote next time, and by different I did'nt mean Vijayakanth.
Good thing should be accepted and bad think should be question...We should not see who in introduce samachir kalvi...we should accept Samacheer kalvi. Please support samacheer kalvi.
On my side I want samacheer kalvi because if you take old syllabus we have more to study in it and we are already starting the sylabus late. If it is samacheer kalvi the lessons would be finished soon so no need to worr5y about the portions and public exam. I wish that samacheer kalvi to come and the main thing is that in samacheer kalvi we don't have record works but in old syllabus we have records.
'Equity' in education is a double edged sword. Each student needs to learn at a pace suitable for him/herself. At all levels of society, there are talented students and not-so-talented ones. Earlier, students could opt for a board of their choice based on their goals and talents. Now, with only one board available, there are no options available to the student. If the syllabus is too hard, the below-average student will suffer; If the syllabus is too easy, the above-average student will never be able to realize his full potential. In today's highly competitive globalized world, we must do everything possible to prepare our talented children face the world. Likewise, we must do everything possible to not demotivate struggling students. A multi-paced system that offers options is best. As expected, 'Samacheer Kalvi' has reduced the quality of education imparted to the lowest common denominator. Don't raze all the mountains and fill all the valleys to create a just and equitable desert!
This is with reference to Simon's comment - "Dogmatic Obsession of No Hindi - Ony Tamil. Denying progress....Only Tamil policy" Do you mean to say Hindi is measure of progress? Then why are so many North Indian migrants and workers seeking work in Tamil Nadu? Knowledge of Hindi is better in Karnataka or Andhra. Yet, Tamil Nadu is far more industrialized and urbanized than these states. Tamil Nadu has a right to protect its language but it is not doing so. CBSE schools have coming up everywhere and they do not teach Tamil as a compulsory subject, unlike a few states where official language of state is compulsory across all boards. It is a fact that DMK wasted public money in freebies and made speeches. CBSE must be brought on par with state legislation as done in a few other states. That includes necessity of studying elementary Tamil which is needed to survive in Tamil Nadu. Other languages should be optional and not obligatory. Hope the present government will do the needful.
Why is there no mention about CBSE schools. Imposition of Hindi language in CBSE, skipping of Tamil (official language of Tamil Nadu), exorbitant fees in such schools. Last check, in the state of Maharashtra, CBSE schools have to comply with certain state statutes - such as those of the Marathi language and school fee structure (Marathi, the official language of Maharashtra state if compulsory in ALL schools irrespective of board). But in Tamil Nadu, they have special immunity. The growth of CBSE schools along with the immunity offered to them was highest during the DMK regime. This only shows that DMK was favouring the elimination of Tamil altogether out of Tamil Nadu schools by means of conversion of several schools into CBSE schools.
suresh - u are a pappan ??
Though the private schools are contending the new samacheerkalvi books as lacking in depth, it is criticized that the schools want to have an edge over the others and hence it is said that this criticism is motivated. But even parents of children going to matric schools, like us, feel the same - syllabus is made easy and the books lack depth - will parents have any ulterior motive other than the children's welfare ? As i understand, an entire chapter ( Chapter VIII) is devoted on comparison of the syllabus and books with other boards. I hope the detailed report will be published and clarity on how they arrived at this decision will be made public,so that there is transparency.
I hope this issue will come to an end now and the books are decided for the year.But i also hope,for the benefit of all the children and the state,the govt will be earnest in improvising the syllabus and books for the coming year. Most important,as the report says, teachers should be trained properly.
It is because of this delay in implementation of either old syllabus or new syllabus, children who are studying tenth standard in Andra pradesh who have taken Tamil as first language also are suffering.
The DMK gov. states that the purpose of Samacheer Kalvi is to bring about 'social equality' through common education. Does this mean people belonging to different social strata were attending school boards/systems? So how did the DMK Gov go about in bringing about such 'social equality'? Firstly by merging the 'matriculation board'. (Administered by the State of Tamilnadu admitting students of all social strata) with the 'State Board' (also administered by the State of Tamilnadu admitting students of all social strata). The only difference being, the former were all private schools and the latter were 'government run' schools. Secondly, instead of increasing the standard of education in 'State Board', they lowered the standard of education in 'matriculation board'. I reviewed the recommended syllabus of the Samacheer Kalvi for the present year for 4th standard, Math, and guess what, it was the same as what was taught in 3rd standard under Matriculation Syllabus!
Rightly said they start schools under CBSE syllabus collecting huge fees, and educate their children abroad, and speak of equality education. When we parents wish that our children should be given good education the government is here to deteriorate the education. The children of 1st std have to again study what they learnt in LKG and UKG under samacheer kalvi, is this development of society, same for 6th std. Samacheer kalvi may be improvement of state board syllabus then let them follow it, but why compel others also to deteriorate their level, it will cause very bad impact on our children's future. They can stay only within the state and cannot compete with students nation wide or internationally. To make the balance equal do not pull down one side, raise the other side of the balance.
DMK first spoiled the earlier generation by taking stance against Hindi. now that the party heads grand children have been educated in good schools / colleges abroad, the present and next generations are been spoiled by this education system. They do not think of state and its people welfare, by keeping the citizens at dark they must be heading all spears in the World.
The common syllabus should be implemented in tamil nadu up to class X to bring in a level playing. No board should be allowed to propogate that their standard of education is superior to other boards. It is a must to merge all the boards into one. The syllabus can be modified but not at the cost of the overall objective of bringing uniformity. It would have been better the review committe memebers were from anglo indian board, state board and oriental also be part of the panel. The team should be of educationist to review and not of people who do not have any background of school education. I hope the students get the benefit of uniformity in syallabus at the earliest
As I understand,the purpose of SamacheerKalvi,by the meaning of its name,is to bring about equity among students;as being so, report of the panel-study disappoints the parents of TamilNadu when it says,'Samacheer Kalvi textbooks can't provide equity'.Already, after a deep study of Educationists at a wider level it had been planned to introduce,by the previous governmentat at the cost of a huge amount as Rs 200 crores, but now, soon after the new government assumed power, it decides to cancel the project and see it is not implemented at any cost, by way of finding ways and means to justify its stand.This makes any common man or woman question the very process in two ways.No.(1) Is it because of the real concern of the government for the the school students and the future of the soceity? or No(2)Is it a way of undoing the new scheme because it was introduced by the previous government?.If the answer is,'Yes'to No(1),we appreciate the government;or if the answer is,'Yes'to No(2)we are sorry.
During DMK rule expert committee was formed to formulate syllabus for samacheer kalvi and it was implemented by previous DMK government. Now ADMK govenment formed another expert committee and found flaws in the syllabus just to stall the implementation of samacheer kalvi. Both committee had experts but why different views.Now this issue have become the egoistic problem for the present chief minister. Only solution is implement the scheme and correct the mistakes and do not play with children future.
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