Steps to redress the issue of drug addiction that is prevalent among the student community was one of the major issues that was raised by many students and stakeholders during the second public hearing on the State Education Policy, said chairman of the panel Justice D. Murugesan here on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after chairing the 12-member panel’s second zonal-level meeting organised to elicit suggestions, Justice Murugesan assured that the panel would give suitable recommendation to the State to tackle the issue of drug addiction.
Noting that the quality of teaching in government schools was far better now than in the past few years, he said that the need to further improve it was one among the commonly put forth opinions which would be considered.
Collector S. Aneesh Sekhar, members of the State Planning Commission and many government officials were present.
Students, parents, teachers, general public, educationists, volunteers etc., from six districts including Madurai, Theni, Sivaganga, Dindigul, Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar were also present..
A few students suggested installing smart classrooms and Atal Tinkering Lab citing that “it makes learning easy through vivid and appealing visuals,” while “application-based learning,” was suggested by S. Subanidhi Subramani of St. Britto Higher Secondary School, Madurai.
Many teachers suggested setting up of audio visual and language labs and to weave in aspects of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) to make classrooms more lively and learning effective.
Mr. Subramani also appealed to the panel to train students in ancient Tamil martial arts to ensure physical fitness. He said it would also help them from falling into drug addiction.
Kannapan, a retired headmaster from Sivaganga said that a stint in the National Cadet Corps (NCC) has to be made compulsory in all educational institutions to achieve the aforementioned suggestion.
Meanwhile, the youngest participant N. Udhayan, a Class IV student of Tiruparankundram Panchayat Union Middle School, Nagamalai Pudukottai, caught the attention of the hall when he candidly put forth that toilet and water facilities must be ensured in all schools along with providing quality uniforms.
A few participants wanted inclusion of mandatory classes on moral values, vocational training and weekly physical education sessions for holistic development of students. Many suggested that the policy must devise features so as to enable teachers in identifying the individual talents of students rather than just focusing on scoring high marks.
Speaking of facing competitive exams, R. Kavya of a private school called for a uniform syllabus to be followed across the State since students from schools following CBSE or ICSE syllabus have an edge over the others in these exams.
Guru Kavya of Government Higher Secondary School at Avaniyapuram stressed for the implementation of a two-language policy and many educationists and teachers supported the suggestion.
Rani Chakravarthy, a rehabilitation child psychologist, highlighted the need for engaging professional psychological counsellors instead of forcing teachers to fill the role. She also called for the State to provide a 3% reservation for differently-abled students. “Special educators must be made mandatory in every school along with making buildings friendly to them such as wheelchair ramps,” she added.
Reducing the current teacher-student ratio to 1:20 or 1:30 was also one of the common suggestions made by the participants.
Transparent fee structure for arts and science colleges was demanded by R. Murali, State Coordinator of Save Higher Education Movement of Tamil Nadu.
