COIMBATORE: Even as the State government continues to assure that all government schools will teach computer science to its students in class VI to X, a Right To Information (RTI) reply from the Directorate of School Education reveals that the computer science text books are lying at godowns for years together. Currently, students enter into computer group in class XI without even learning how to switch on or off a computer machine.
The State government, upon introducing the Samacheer Kalvi in 2011, had announced that computer science and economics would be added as a part of the syllabus for classes between VI and X for from the academic year 2011-12. As an initial step towards implementation, the government had printed over 50 lakh computer science textbooks, based on the then strength of students at government schools. The Tamil Nadu Text Book Corporation printed the books after Government spent crores of rupees on it, said sources.
While the books managed to reach the offices of several Chief Educational Officers (CEOs) across the State, the books did not reach the hands of the students yet, sources added.
“Not just the printed books, even the basic computer education scheme is long forgotten,” sources said, explaining that it was about about five years since all schemes related to the computer science were even mentioned.
In a recent RTI reply to the queries raised by V Kumaresan, a computer trainer with a private institution and who was waiting for an opportunity to get a job offer as a computer science teacher, pertaining to the books that were printed in the year 2011, the Directorate of School Education said that all computer science books that were printed for the classes between VI and X had become waste as the books were not used.
Citing lack of sufficient teachers to take computer science classes as a reason for not introducing the subject at schools, he said that if only the government had done so, the students would have benefited from it.
Agreeing with Kumaresan, S Kalaivanan, member of Working Computer Teachers Association, said that right from the basics of computers including hardware and software for the Class VI to introduction to the programming language like C and HTML, the books were age-appropriate. Now, students were entering computer science classes to learn programming languages without even knowing how to switch on and off the computer.