State to issue smart cards to school students

Plan meant to transform school education in State, says K.A. Sengottaiyan

Minister for School Education K.A.Sengottaiyan speaking at the meeting in Madurai on Saturday.

The Tamil Nadu government was planning to introduce smart cards to students of government-run schools, Minister for School Education, Sports and Youth Welfare K.A. Sengottaiyan said, while speaking at the valedictory function of State-level four-day skill enhancement programme for educational officers here on Saturday.

Stating that the plan was part of a slew of measures planned by the government to transform school education in the State, he said that the smart cards would capture all the details of the students, including their Aadhaar details, blood group, family, and all their education-related information. He said that the smart card would not only help in ensuring that children got quality education, but also help in tracking their progress.

Later, speaking to the media, he, however, refused to elaborate further on the proposal by stating that a detailed announcement would be made soon.

The Minister also said that the cash awards and certificates for students securing top three ranks in public examinations would henceforth be made available only to those learning through Tamil medium. “The Chief Minister is expected to approve the proposal soon,” he said.

“I have often observed these awards going to English medium and economically well-off students, who often come in cars with their parents to receive the awards. The cash awards may not be of any help to them,” he added.

Mr. Sengottaiyan also said that a number of new measures were on the anvil for construction of adequate number of toilets in schools, ensuring proper maintenance of toilets, computerisation of schools, and to reduce the burden of headmasters in distributing government’s welfare measures to students.

Earlier, in another function, the Minister distributed orders of temporary recognition to 223 private matriculation schools from Madurai, Tirunelveli, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar and Theni districts.

Asking the school principals and correspondents not to worry that the recognition was valid only till May 2018, he said that the government was working on issuing long-term recognition soon.

“I understand that there are hurdles in issuing recognition certificates to around 2,500 matriculation schools. The issue will be addressed in a span of six months,” he said.