The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Need for tracking system to ensure nil dropout: Minister

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Saturday, Aug 18, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Need for tracking system to ensure nil dropout: Minister

Staff Reporter

Inspects implementation of Active Learning Methodology at centre in Karur

NEW METHODOLOGY: School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu (second from right), and Karur Collector T.N. Venkatesh displaying the efforts of students in “mind mapping” at Naganoor in Karur district on Friday.

KARUR: A comprehensive child tracking system to keep a tab on the educational and social grasp of every child needs to be developed. Once implemented, the system can ensure that there is no school dropout or child labourers, Minister for School Education Thangam Thennarasu said on Friday.

He was interacting with presspersons after inspecting the implementation of the Active Learning Methodology (ALM) at an ALM model centre at the Panchayat Union Middle School, Naganoor, 65 km from here.

Mr. Thennarasu said no stone would be left unturned to ensure that there was nil dropout. For monitoring purposes, educational guarantee centres could be started in specific areas prone to employing child labour such as stone quarrying regions. If need be, the centres could be converted into regular schools, provided there were enough students.

Stating that no school would be closed down, the Minister said Rs.138 crore had been allotted during the current year for renovation or repair of buildings housing panchayat schools all over the State. Besides, Rs.250 crore under NABARD’s Rural Infrastructure Development Fund and another Rs.300 crore through the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan would be spent on constructing new school buildings in the State.

The Government’s aim was to bring down the teacher-student ratio to a desirable 1:30 from the present 1:37. Towards that end, 13,500 vacancies for teachers would be filled up shortly. A total of 241 primary schools were opened, while 324 primary, 110 middle and 120 high schools were upgraded to the next level.

Mr. Thennarasu said the Active Learning Methodology, a follow up on the much-popular Activity Based Learning (ABL), was being implemented in upper primary classes comprising six, seven and eight standards in 12 districts, including Karur, during the first phase on a pilot basis.

Feedback

Depending on the feedback, the ALM would be extended to the other districts. A total of 160 schools had been brought under the ALM fold and over a lakh teachers trained on the ALM concepts. Initially, science and social science would taught through the ALM concept, while efforts were under way to prepare ALM modules for Tamil, English and Mathematics, he added.

SSA State Project Coordinator M.P. Vijayakumar, Karur Collector T.N. Venkatesh, MP K.C. Palanisamy and MLAs R. Manikkam (Kulithalai) and P. Kamaraj (Krishnarayapuram) were among those present on the occasion.

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