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Thursday, Aug 27, 2009
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Equitable standard education from 2010

B. Kolappan

Common syllabus, textbooks for classes I and VI
System to be extended to other classes in 2011

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday announced the implementation of equitable standard school education in the State from the next academic year. It will begin with the introduction of a common syllabus and textbooks in Classes I to and VI.

“The system would be extended to other classes from 2011-2012,” said an official press release, explaining the decision taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.

“It is a historic decision in response to a long-pending demand,” said School Education Minster Thangam Thennarasu. The decisions of the meeting would be placed before the Cabinet on August 29 for approval, he added.

Only on Tuesday, a committee, headed by retired IAS officer M.P.Vijaykumar and appointed by the State government, to advise it on the implementation of common syllabus based on the recommendations of S. Muthukumaran committee submitted its report.

The State government decided to create a Common Board by merging all boards. As for the medium of instruction, besides Tamil, other languages now being used would continue.

Currently, four streams of school systems – State Board, Matriculation, Anglo-Indian and Oriental – are being followed in Tamil Nadu.

The State government on September 8, 2006, appointed a committee headed by former Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University S. Muthukumaran to study the possibilities of introducing equitable standard education in schools. The committee submitted its report on July 4, 2007.

Expressing happiness over the government decision, Dr. Muthukumaran said equitable standard education could be implemented only in a phased manner.

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