There has been a long-pending demand in Tamil Nadu for a common syllabus and a common system of education from the 1st to the 10th standard, with no distinction between the state board matriculation and the CBSE stream. The previous DMK government had finally decided to go in for a common syllabus. Work was completed on the drafting and printing of school textbooks at an approximate cost of R250 crore. The textbooks were to be availed of by 1.3-1.4 crore students in the state. This had met with the approval of many educationists. But it had faced strong opposition from the rival AIADMK. The newly elected CM, J Jayalalithaa, had expressed major reservations about the common syllabus.
After coming to power, the new ruling party set up its own expert panel to review the proposed uniform syllabus policy with a 9-member committee, which has informed the Madras High Court that it is not feasible to roll out the common syllabus or samacheer kalvi, as it is known, in the current academic year. This has drawn the ire of civil activist organisations like People?s Watch, which has demanded the early implementation of uniform education to check private schools? rampant profiteering in the state.
Peeved over the postponing of the common syllabus implementation, the People?s Watch group?that crusades for children?s right to education?had organised a meet-up to mobilise public support and create awareness about how the poor and middle class parents will stand to lose if the uniform system of education is not implemented forthwith. People?s Watch recently convened a Chennai declaration forum that elicited scores of opinions from education activists across the state.
Vaiko-led MDMK, an ally of Jayalalithaa before the assembly elections, is now taking an oppositional stance on various issues?including the uniform education syllabus?following the parting of ways of the two parties after the failure of seat-sharing talks for the 2011 assembly elections. V Easwaran, district secretary of MDMK, Coimbatore, points out: ?In 2005-06, we had a gross enrolment of about 1.3 crore students in government and government-aided schools in the state. And in 2009-10, the enrolment slipped to 93 lakh students. Ironically, during the same period, the number of students in private schools had jumped from 25 lakh (2005-06) to 37 lakh students during 2009-10. These numbers are highly disturbing. Parents are forced to go for private schools even if they charge an exorbitant amount as fees. Everybody feels that the new government would be wasting the R250 crore spent towards printing of uniform textbooks if it shelves the previous government?s project. Nobody is talking about the implicit loss of roughly R1,600 crore to the government due to the stop-go mode of working of schools over the last two months. The Tamil Nadu government?s school budget?including public and private schools?this year is around R20,000 crore. With no meaningful academic activity taking place until the issue of a uniform system of education is resolved, the government is losing money in overheads like staff salary and other operating expenditure.?
The MDMK functionary adds that among the southern states, Andhra Pradesh was the first to learn that its education was falling way behind the standards of CBSE. Due to the efforts of education visionaries in Andhra Pradesh, the state framed and adopted a syllabus pattern that is at par with CBSE. In the all-India competitive exams like IIT and JEE, Andhra Pradesh students are now acing the tests with ease, Easwaran says. Kerala was the next to take the cue, wherein it has started taking steps to revamp the state board to bring education up to CBSE standards. Easwaran laments that Tamil Nadu is the only state where students continue to bear the brunt of politically-motivated battles in this matter.
Bharathi Krishnakumar?a documentary film maker and writer who has released a DVD concerning the evils of inequality in the current school education scenario in Tamil Nadu, where economically underprivileged children are then deprived of good quality higher education and jobs?says that the way the government is administering the government schools appears more like it is furthering the cause of profit-oriented private education. The film maker says that the current AIADMK government is intending to ditch the uniform education system purely because it was introduced during the earlier
DMK regime. She believes that delaying the uniform system of education will only widen the gulf between the privileged students who get private education and the poor who are dependent on government education.
The members of the Chennai declaration have unanimously condemned the state government?s circular instructing the government and government-aided teachers not to participate in the discussions and in the public seminars criticising the government?s stand on the uniform education system.
Now, the Madras High Court has ordered the government to implement the uniform school education syllabus from the current academic year itself. Further, the common textbooks have to be distributed to the schools by July 22. Checkmate, Jayalalithaa?