CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Government's move towards creating a uniform syllabus won support from teachers, members of the Tamil Nadu Elementary Schools Teachers Federation and activists who met here on Saturday.

Welcoming the initiative, they prepared a draft memorandum, which they intend to submit to the Dr. Muthukumaran Committee, appointed by the Government to look into the issue, later this week.

Participants were from Madurai, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore, Virudunagar, Tiruchi, Thiruvallur, Chennai and Pondicherry.

Recommendations

They put together a set of recommendations and strategies that the committee might consider while deciding on the actual implementation of a uniform syllabus.

They suggested that a system to prevent children from dropping out of schools be implemented.

Providing for free education to every child up to class 12 in the budget, minimising private players in the field, offering education in the child's mother tongue and appointing adequate number of teachers on regular scales of pay were some of the recommendations.

Cultivating creative abilities

They also emphasised the need for education to cultivate creative abilities, good infrastructure and safety standards, a curriculum that encouraged `learning without burden,' and an examination system that was "experiential and experimental."

They also requested the Government to have a minimum of six per cent of the GDP allocated for school education.

The education system should focus on life skills development, equipping children of deprived sections of society and children with special needs, they said.

They also suggested that the reservation system be followed uniformly across government and private institutions. Private tuitions, capitation fee and all forms of punishment should be abused. Stringent action against sexual abuse was also included.

Highlighting the need for decentralisation of educational management, they said the Government should take up the responsibility of resource mobilisation.

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