Holding that a common syllabus alone cannot ensure quality education, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms J Jayalalithaa today made a slew of announcements for improving school education, including appointment of more than 18,000 teaching and non-teaching staff.
Making an announcement in the Assembly, she said more than 700 lower and middle-level schools would be upgraded and over 18,000 teachers and non-teaching staff would be appointed.
While some programmes, including the Rs 1082.71-crore infrastructure development scheme for schools would be implemented as part of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, a Centre-State initiative, the State will grant funds from its own resources for some other schemes, Ms Jayalalithaa said.
“As it has been mentioned in Prof Muthukumaran Committee (appointed to advise the government on Samacheer Kalvi or Uniform Education) basic infrastructure is imperative (and) common syllabus alone cannot be Samacheer Kalvi. My government is well aware of this and Rs 1082.71 crore will be allotted this year for upgrading infrastructure in schools,” she said.
Further, with a view to improve teaching standards in government-run schools, a new scheme, ICT@Schools, Tamil Nadu, would be implemented, she said, adding, core concepts of respective subjects would be computerised and presented in classrooms.
“Efforts will be taken to use satellite-based dissemination of compilation of lectures by best teachers to classrooms under this scheme,” she said.
Chess would be introduced for students between 7-17 years to improve their intellectual grasp, she said.