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An anxious silence is running through the State that is comparable to the way the people were silently waiting for a good result at the recent elections. And they got a good result with a change in the government. They are waiting for a good result this time as what is at stake is the future of our children. They (we) expect the Supreme Court to deliver a verdict to put aside the Uniform education policy of Karunanidhi and call for a rethink on how to bring about uniformity without sacrificing quality.
Any thinking person and anyone having the knowledge of what is happening in the education scenario from primary school to college level in Tamilnadu will say that the move by Karunanidhi to downgrade the syllabus in the name of uniformity in education is retrograde. He has cleverly misused the concept of Uniform Education and the recommendations of the Committee that went into the details of that, to draw a name for himself without any idea of how such a concept must be put into application. Now out of power, he is searching for issues to attack Jayalalithaa and using the move by Jayalalithaa government to revamp the policy, to whip up the emotions of people who have no idea of the present scenario and the futuristic implications of this policy. Only he is politicizing it by calling it a vindictive policy of Jayalalithaa for reversing his policies. If Jayalalithaa's intention was to reverse every scheme brought out by Karunanidhi, she need not have redone the Medical Insurance scheme that was originally introduced by him. There is nothing she can gain by spoiling the education of more than one crore students. But Karunanidhi has everything to gain by portraying Jayalalithaa as an egotist (ஆணவம்) for calling for a change in the policy introduced by him.
It is unfortunate that the Madras HC played into this argument of politicization over education policy and not care to see what the new syllabus is about. Now that the case has gone to the Supreme Court, it is the wish of all thinking people of the State that the SC would see wisdom in abolishing the scheme in its present form and pave way for overall upgradation of the schools and faculty and bring the syllabus on par with the national level of education as enunciated by NCERT.
It is strange that no court found it wrong when Tamilnadu exceeded the reservation quota beyond 50%.
No court found it wrong when Tamilnadu was the only State to have abolished entrance exam for admission into professional colleges.
But the courts are finding it wrong to stop an attempt to destroy the education system in Tamilnadu.
Just 200 crore rupees look important for them than what our kids are going to study.
If the courts think that this money should not be wasted, let the books be distributed, but please do not lose sight of the repercussions that the present scheme is going to have.
The reality scenario in Tamilnadu is that the existing system of State board for Higher secondary encourages only rote learning. Only marks for memory matter a lot. Centums carry no relevance. The extent of the decay of this system can be known from the fact that this year centum was given for English, a foreign language!! By awarding many centums and hiking pass percentage, the government in the past had wanted to take a false pride that its policy on education is a fantastic one. But there is no intrinsic value in these achievements.
It is a pity that all those who are supporting Karunanidhi's scheme of Uniform education are not aware of where our kids stand in comparison with those outside the State. No one studying in the State stream of +2 at present can compete anywhere in India. None of these students can write an entrance exam in any other state in India and get a seat. None of them can write any competitive exam or a National talents exam. None of them can enter the NIT in Tamilnadu nor the IIT in Chennai. What will happen after sometime? Seeing that only CBSE students and other State students are entering these institutions in Tamilnadu, Karunanidhi & his followers would start agitations to stop them or call it as Aryan and Brahmin domination eating upon the chances of the local students.
A shift to CBSE will be impossible in the scheme of Karunanidhi. Until now Matriculation system filled the gap between State board and Central Board. The students had an option to switch over to CBSE in plus one so that they can equip themselves well for competitive exams. This year's IIT topper from Chennai studied in Matriculation until 10th and switched over to CBSE in 11th as he wanted to appear for IIT-JEE. The proposed uniform syllabus can not come to the help of students who want to make a shift to CBSE. I think the student is entitled to a right to study in a stream he likes and if the government -imposed scheme in the form of Karunanidhi's Uniform syllabus hampers him from doing that, then that is an infringement of his right to education. It is hoped that the SC takes a right decision as not to infringe this right of the student.
Some arguments against Karunanidhi's education policy can be read in the following links:-
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