The State Education Policy (SEP) drafted by the expert committee under retired Madras High Court judge Justice D. Murugesan is learnt to have observed that formal schooling must begin only at Class I in all institutions on “completion of 5 years” as on 31st July of an academic year. It may be noted that the National Education Policy (NEP) favours children completing six years to enter formal school education.
Informed sources told The Hindu that the committee has recommended that no centralised examination should be held until students take the Board examinations in Class X. “There should be no centralised examinations at earlier levels.” The NEP favours public exams in Classes III, V and VIII.
While the NEP favoured 5+3+3+4 system, the SEP in Tamil Nadu supported 5+3+2+2. “The stages of school are to be understood as 5+3+2+2, forming respectively, the primary stage, the upper primary stage, secondary stage and higher secondary stage.”
The panel said the State-aided schools must be treated on a par with government schools and follow all regulations and requirements applicable to the latter.
“While aided schools are a boon for the public education system, many discrepancies and issues regarding their functioning have surfaced such as posting of excess teachers, unregulated fee collection and fake portrayal of students’ strength. Hence all aided institutions across the State should be assessed and analyzed through a specific study”.
As for teacher selected in schools, the panel said that the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) should test not only book learning but should include assessment of teachers on understanding of democratic principles, social divides and language and culture, local knowledge. “For a candidate who qualifies for the TET and applies for a teaching post, there shall be a rigorous selection process with several levels of screening using multiple methods of assessment”.
A comprehensive regulation shall be framed for monitoring the functioning of play schools/pre-primary schools nurseries/kindergarten etc., run by the private managements, it said. The State needed to ensure that every habitation with a minimum population as determined by the government should have a primary school within 1 km of access, it said. Any habitation beyond 5 km reach of a school should have access to residential schools.
To facilitate better administration, establishment of more aided institutions and providing opportunities for the minorities to offer new programmes under the aided stream, the panel recommended revision of key regulations including the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges (Regulation) Act, 1976 and The Tamil Nadu Private Schools (Regulation) Act, 2018.
It called for steps to enable students belonging to the religious and linguistic minorities to learn their mother tongue such as Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Saurashtra. “Schools and educational institutions should have spaces that can identify, harness and embrace gender diverse children and make sure education continues to be the hope for life,” it said.
The panel also made recommendations for ensuring the education of children of refugees born in Tamil Nadu, migrant labourers, children of urban poor in resettlement tenements and children who have lost both their parents. “The government may consider 1% of reservation in higher education for the children who have lost both parents.”
It also recommended regular school learning for students, who are at present in many schools that provide music training such as petite seminary, Madrasas, Veda Patashalas, Isai Palli and Oduvar training schools (HR&CE). “It cannot be the case that these children do not have access to learning regular subjects and life skills that are required to develop into a well-informed, contributing and compassionate citizen.”
The panel said School Management Committees should be established in private schools too. It recommended that the present system of providing free bicycles to students of Class 11 can be extended from Class IX onwards.
Published - July 01, 2024 10:07 pm IST
