The new syllabus for classes II to V and VII to X as per the Samacheer Kalvi policy of the State government is ready.
The School Education Department has taken additional care to ensure that the content and presentation are of good quality, according to School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu.
Speaking to The Hindu on Thursday, he said the Department had earlier made a draft of the syllabus available on its website. The feedback received from different stake holders were analysed and necessary changes were made to the syllabus before it was finalised.
“Evolving a syllabus is a continuous, reflective process and we are conscious of that. There will always be scope for improvement,” he said.
Samacheer Kalvi was first introduced for classes I and VI in June 2010, at the beginning of the current academic year. The move sought to offer equitable standard school education to students, by merging the State Board, Matriculation, Anglo-Indian and OSLC streams and by evolving a new syllabus that would draw upon the four streams. Samacheer Kalvi would be extended to other classes from the coming academic year.
Asked about the periodic turbulence pertaining to the issue of fees charged by private schools, the Minister said the committee headed by Justice K. Raviraja Pandian was working as per the directions of the High Court.
RMSA
On other areas that the Department is currently focussing on, Mr. Thennarasu said the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), a Central government scheme aimed at universalising access to and improving the quality of secondary education, was high on priority.
“We want to strengthen infrastructure further and look at issues pertaining to quality. Once there is a foundation, we would be in a position to look at funding,” he said.
Computer education in schools would be strengthened, particularly for classes VII upward. “Now all schools have computers. Computer education for class VI has already begun. The Department is now working on developing content and textbooks for the other classes, too.”
The Department is gearing up for the implementation of the Right To Education Act, Mr. Thennarasu said. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has a State representative to monitor the implementation of the Act in Tamil Nadu.
“While they [NCPCR] talk of child rights, we would have to, perhaps, start off with children's educational rights first. We are also holding meetings with private schools to sensitise them to the Act. It is a robust exercise and we are in the process of strengthening our system to enable effective implementation of the RTE Act,” he said.
