Although the great majority of parents and lay citizens tend to believe that education in contemporary India is insulated from politics, the reality is that the education sector is a favourite playing field of Tamil Nadu’s viciously competitive politicians with children kicked about like footballs.
Over 12 million students enroled in 52,303 schools affiliated with the Tamil Nadu state board, 5,934 private schools affiliated with the Board of Matriculation Schools and 5,000 nursery and private schools affiliated with the Directorate of Elementary Education; and other schools affiliated with the Oriental School Leaving Certificate and Anglo-Indian examination boards, have started the new academic year, which comm-enced on June 15, without a prescribed syllabus or textbooks.
This unprecedented situation is the outcome of Tamil Nadu’s newly sworn-in AIADMK government which swept the state’s legislative assembly electi-ons two months ago, decreeing postponement of the Samacheer Kalvi or common school curriculum introd-uced in all schools by the ousted DMK government in June 2010 for classes I and VI, and scheduled for introduction into classes II-V and VII-X during the current academic year 2011-2012.
Shortly after it was sworn in, on May 15, the AIADMK amended s.3 of the Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010 (USSE) on the grounds that the Samacheer Kalvi syllabus is weak, and textbooks of poor quality. But on June 10, the Madras high court stayed the amendment. Subsequently on June 14 the Supreme Court also turned down the new AIADMK government’s appeal against the Madras high court judgement directing the government to appoint an expert committee to review the common school syllabus. In its 600-page report presented to the new state government on July 5, the committee highlighted several deficiencies in the common syllabus and recommended against its rollout this year.
Since then a battery of lawyers of the state government, Matriculation schools supporting the state government and activists representing the State Platform for a Common School System, apart from aggrieved parents and students have filed writ petitions in the high court and Supreme Court.
The outcome of continuous litigation for and against the common school syllabus has been loss of productive time for schools and anxiety for students, teachers and parents. On July 18, the Madras high court ended uncertainty about the common school syllabus by setting aside the order of the Tamil Nadu government to defer implementation of USSE and ordered implementation of Samacheer Kalvi from classes 1 to X.
The high court also directed that 90 million textbooks printed by the Tamil Nadu Text Book Corporation as per the Samacheer Kalvi syllabus, and appr-oved by the former DMK government, be distributed to schools by July 22. However, the court permitted private schools to select textbooks of private publishers approved by the State Common Board of School Education.
Unwilling to comply with this order, the state government filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court. On July 21, the Supreme Court again refused to stay the high court’s judge-ment striking down the s.3 amendment to the USSE Act as unconstitutional. The state government’s assurance that it will implement the USSE Act in the next academic year after rectifying deficiencies and redesigning the syllabus didn’t impress the apex court.
Although schools and students are relieved that they will now have textbooks to study, private matriculation school managements are less than happy with the Supreme Court verdict. “The current version of the common syllabus doesn’t demand application of analytical skills or extra textual reading. Its content is of low standard and suffers in comparison with the well-designed Matriculation school syllabus which enables smooth transition from lower to higher classes. Following implementation of the dumbed down common syllabus, Tamil Nadu students will not be able to compete effectively with students from schools affiliated with the CBSE and CISCE boards in national entrance exams, in which high grades are required for entry into the country’s best colleges. The Supreme Court has yet to give its conclusive verdict. If it upholds the high court order, then most matriculation schools will opt for state-approved textbooks of private publishers,” predicts Dr. N. Vijayan, general secretary, Federation of Associations of Matricul-ation Schools and principal, Zion Matriculation School, Chennai.
Thus blameless children aspiring to half decent education become footballs in games politicians play.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)