The School Education Department in Tamil Nadu began the process of revamping the curriculum for State board schools with a seminar on ‘Developing new curriculum’ held in the city on Thursday. The massive exercise brought together nearly 800 teachers from various subjects, academicians, educationalists, activists and officials from the school education department.
Speaking at the inaugural of the seminar, M. Anandakrishnan, Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Curriculum Framework Committee, said that the challenge before the committee was to create a curriculum where the children were able to keep up with the rapid changes all around them as well as adequately equip themselves with knowledge.
“A child who starts school next year will pass out sometime around 2030 and by that time, there would have been enormous changes — ecologically, economically, socially as well as in the knowledge system. Tamil Nadu has about 58,000 schools with 5.7 lakh teachers for 13 million students and these numbers are bound to increase as well,” he said.
Stating that it was necessary to develop a curriculum which strengthens the fundamental concepts and not just promotes rote learning, Mr. Anandakrishnan said that it was imperative to train teachers with regard to the learning capacity of the students.
“The learning material available for children should be interesting and the examination system which is now being used to simply filter students should be made part of the learning system where students are benefited from it,” he explained. The former Vice Chancellor of Anna University further said that the Universities in the country which have ignored the school education system so far should become a collateral part of it.
K.A. Sengottaiyan, Minister for School Education, said that the department was aiming to bring in many reforms in the coming months with regard to providing quality education for students. “We are taking in suggestions from all stakeholders and one of the steps towards these reforms is the formation of the curriculum framework committee,” he said.
Calling the syllabus revamp a much needed exercise that needs to be carried out every couple of years to take stock of what is being taught to the children, Achim Fabig, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Chennai, said that future generations needed to be equipped to deal with the challenges of a changing world. “To have a global outlook on the education system is imperative and the curriculum has to integrate ideas of what globalisation is and how students can benefit from it,” Mr. Achim added.
