CHENNAI: Around 800 State Government teachers who have been specially chosen by government will be utilised to write textbooks of the new curriculum as announced by the School Education Secretary, during a seminar on developing new curriculum on Thursday. The seminar is a three-day session.
School Education Secretary T Udhayachandran said developing a new curriculum happened 10 to 12 years ago. For a new curriculum, firstly the government has to settle the process where they can consult all stakeholders. That is the main aim of the seminar, he said. “To give a scientific orientation we have chosen the dignitaries or the speakers carefully,” he said, adding for the three-day session 800 teachers have been picked.
He said these are the best teachers in all subjects from Tamil to Commerce and Accountancy. “We have around 30 to 35 teachers who excel in ICT have been picked. They will also be utilised in text book writing. Textbook writing is not an exercise that can be done within four walls. The teachers have to be exposed to different ideas.” New trends have come up which should also be included in the syllabus.
Citing an example, he said Kerala textbooks have chapters on organic farming but those here do not have the subject. The syllabus should include scientific developments as well as local events in order to go with the current times, he said.
Speaking about the seminar he said it is on the overall viewpoint, how curriculum should be and how evaluation should be and what the government expects from the panellists and teachers and what challenges they are to face. “The next two days of the session will be on critical point. We have divided entire group into 10 to 12 subject wise,” he said.
There will be concurrent session held in Anna University, IIT Madras, Anna Centenary library. There will be a session on curriculum with a mentor. Every session will have experts, academicians (from NCERT/SCERT from govt offices), receptionists, activists, good and reputed school teachers, Cambridge,IGCSE teachers and also from CBSE private schools, the secretary said.
The session will also display books from across globe, including ICSE, CBSE, IGCSE, Karnataka and Kerala for the teachers and also multimedia references will be there.
M Anandakrishnan, chairman of Tamil Nadu New Curriculum Framework said the number of schools in the State is about 58,000 and there are about 5.7 lakh teachers. There are about 13 million students. It is bound to grow in the coming years. For students who will join school next year and come out in 2030, there will be enormous technological, economic and social changes.
“The first challenge is to make the children aware of the fundamentals of the knowledge and not simply memorise it,” he said.
Further, he said to make learning interesting for students, textbooks and other learning devices have to be made attractive enough to keep the attention of the students. Another big challenge he said was that examination system should be in such a way that students feel benefited and not threatened by it.
“It is also essential schools should have the best environment and best infrastructure. Without proper infrastructure learning will not be effective.”
School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan said, “We want to make students prepared to face any exam and bring about reforms and improve quality of education. One of the steps towards that is the committee under M Anandakrishnan. With experienced educationists, we are confident the syllabus will be best revised. There will be smart classes for 3000 classrooms.”