CHENNAI: THE School Education Department will turn to technology-driven facilities including digital certificate lockers and GPS-enabled smart cards, said Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan, replying to the debate in the Assembly on demand for grants on Thursday.
Students who lost their Class X or XII certificates need not run from pillar to post in education offices, as the State government will soon launch ‘DigiLocker’ - a platform for issuance and verification of documents and certificates digitally, thus eliminating the use of physical documents.
From next year, candidates who appear for higher secondary or SSLC exams having DigiLocker account will be facilitated to download their digital mark certificate from the repository of the Directorate of Government Examinations (DGE). Candidates can access their digital mark certificates anytime, anywhere and share it online. Digital locker makes it easier to validate the authenticity of mark certificates, as they are issued directly from the repository of the directorate, explained the policy note of the School Education Department for 2017-18. Also for the first time, mark certificates will also contain the name of the candidates and subjects in Tamil version.
In his speech at the end of the debate, Sengottaiyan said the State government would make all efforts to soon distribute smart cards to students. “This will have a slot where SIM cards can be inserted. Using GPS-enabled SIM cards, parents can keep track of the whereabouts of their wards and whether they have attended or not,” he said.
Apart from this, plans were devised to distribute simplified activity-based learning cards and learning and teaching accessories. Special training sessions for government school students on weekends, foreign educational trips, State-level cultural programmes, education loan-cum-career guidance camps and block-level talent exams were on the cards from this academic year.
Teacher welfare
The State government has finally responded to the two long-pending demands from the teachers - filling 4,084 vacant posts and making jobs of 17,000 temporary teaching staff permanent. However, the government is yet to finalise details on their pay and working hours. Also, for the first time, teachers from private matriculation schools will be trained alongside their counterparts in government-funded schools in improving their teaching skills.
Syllabus revamp
A draft report prepared by syllabus revision committee to be presented in the Assembly next week. The team
visited AP, Kerala and Maharashtra besides Singapore to study various study models before writing the draft
WHAT’S NEW
30 new primary schools
Equal education programmes in five districts - Tiruvannamalai, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Krishnagiri and Tiruppur
486 computer-based learning centres
Napkin vending machines and incinerators in 5,639 high and higher secondary schools
Magazines for students in 31,322 government and panchayat union schools
Two new inspectors of matriculation school buildings at Krishnagiri and Nagai
Gap in teacher vacancies between north and south TN will be bridged
10,000 new modern toilets
LIBRARIES
Books worth D30 crore to be brought for Anna Centenary Library, Chennai
World-class library to be set up at Madurai Tamil Sangam complex at D6 crore
YOUTH WELFARE, SPORTS
Sports biomechanics centre at Tamil Nadu Sports University
D8.8 crore for maintenance of Nehru stadium, Radhakrishnan basketball stadium