Don’t blame us for half-baked syllabus
Compelled to introduce uniform school education system this
year, the state government has shrugged off accusations that its implementation
is shoddy. When opposition members raised issues concerning the implementation of
Samacheer Kalvi in the state assembly on Monday, chief minister J Jayalalithaa and
school education minister C Ve Shanmugham declined to take the blame for what they
termed a half-baked system and pointed out that this was exactly what they had warned
against.
When PMK floor leader Kaduvetti J Guru called for the implementation of the neighbourhood
school concept and 25% reservation for underprivileged children in private schools
under the RTE Act, Shanmugham was quick to retort, Before Samacheer Kalvi was implemented,
the chief minister wanted to incorporate the RTE rules in the system. But it was
you who wanted the uniform syllabus system as it is. Now you are asking for the
implementation of the RTE Act. The RTE Act rules have not been framed yet. The chief
minister will take steps.
Guru replied, We want mistakes in Samacheer Kalvi to be removed before its implementation.
To this, Jayalalithaa intervened to say, We wanted to implement Samacheer Kalvi
but not in the half baked form that it is in. We wanted to streamline the system,
make some changes and do it in due course of time. But all the other parties, including
the PMK, said forget upgrading infrastructure and implement Samacheer Kalvi immediately.
We went to the court. But the court too has asked us to implement the system this
year. So what can we do now
AIADMK MLA P Dhansingh wondered why when there was a State Common Board of School
Education under Samacheer Kalvi, four boards of education state board, Anglo-Indian,
matriculation and oriental continued to function. The boards should be merged and
the common board should be given autonomy, he said.
Responding to this, Shanmugham noted that a one member committee under MP Vijaykumar,
a former bureaucrat, had suggested there was no need to merge the boards and that
the individual directorates need not be dissolved.
SOPS FOR STUDENTS
14,377 teachers to be appointed Rs 260 crore to be spent on building labs,
classrooms and toilets in 236 government higher secondary schools Students will
be allowed to write supplementary exam in June/July even if they fail in all subjects
Students to get smart cards containing details that will help officials track school
dropouts.
Courtesy: Times of India
