Waking up to the need for revising the school education syllabus, the State government on Tuesday announced a schedule for rolling out new syllabi for all classes, starting with higher secondary. While the government acknowledged that the syllabus must have been revised once every three to five years, the higher secondary syllabus in Tamil Nadu was last revised 12 years ago, and, for the other classes, seven years ago.
The revised syllabus would incorporate newer aspects, including information technology. School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan said the revision was overdue for all classes, and that the change in syllabus would be made over three years from 2018-19.
“We will ensure our syllabus is either equivalent or above the standards of the CBSE syllabus. We will compare and analyse the syllabi of various States and Boards before finalising our syllabus,” School Education Secretary T. Udhayachandran said. “We are also introducing information technology from Class VI,” he added.
The decision of the government is based on the recommendations made by a high-level expert committee headed by the School Education Minister and comprising educationists and experts.
The new syllabus would be designed to craft a learning management system that encourages e-learning with the help of e-books and smart books, he said, adding that the IT infrastructure would be enhanced in schools across the State, which would also include mobile applications.
Mr. Udhayachandran said, “In order to protect the uniqueness of our syllabus, we will incorporate various aspects of Tamil language, its heritage and culture in subjects such as Tamil, history, geography, political science and other subjects wherever possible.”
Schedule and budget
He noted that IT education had been confined to Class XI and Class XII students so far. A G.O. issued in this regard has directed the State Council for Educational Research and Training to prepare a proposal with budget and schedule for training teachers to adapt to the new syllabus.
The decision of the State government follows the resolutions passed by a high-level expert committee The committee constituted in 2012 passed three major resolutions on May 11 this year.
While one resolution urged the designing of a syllabus that was “above the CBSE syllabus”, another sought the preparation of students of all 12 vocational courses for vertical mobility and the honing of their skills. The last one urged the introduction of information technology for school students.
