Page 22 - EW December 2025

Education News

government school teachers associa- teacher training, infrastruc-
tions intend to continue with state- ture upgrades, and resource
wide protest rallies. And if they don’t mobilisation. A member of
force the government to relent, they the Tamil Nadu Teachers’
are drawing up plans to go to court Forum warns that “unless
to revoke this “anti-social policy”. the state invests heavily
Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) in implementation, rural
schools will struggle, while
TAMIL NADU urban private schools will
New curriculum adapt quickly — widening
the rural-urban education
anxiety divide instead of narrow-
ing it.”
ear is also expressed
oon after the landmark Na- Chief minister Stalin with Poyyamozhi (left) Fabout aligning Tamil
tional Education Policy (NEP) Nadu’s new curriculum
S2020 was promulgated on July the Tamil Nadu State Planning Com- with national entrance exams. Expe-
29, 2020, the Tamil Nadu state gov- mission who chairs the Curriculum rienced educators worry that if the
ernment rejected it — mainly because Design Committee. state’s syllabus diverges too sharply
it had resurrected a long-buried pro- According to education ministry from the Central Board of Secondary
posal for all primary-secondary school sources, the curriculum committee has Education (CBSE) and Council for the
children nationwide to learn three been instructed to ensure departure Indian School Certificate Examina-
languages — mother tongue, Hindi from textbook-heavy, exams-driven tions (CISCE) curricula, it will disad-
and a ‘foreign’ language (i.e, English). instruction towards competency- vantage TN students in national com-
According to Tamil Nadu chief min- based learning, creativity, digital lit- petitive exams. “Reform is necessary,
ister M.K. Stalin, despite the united eracy, environmental awareness, arts but it should not isolate our students
opposition of Dravidian political par- integration, and social-emotional de- from the national mainstream,” says
ties to the ‘imposition’ of Hindi on velopment. SEP 2025 also mandates a member of a Chennai-based educa-
Tamil Nadu way back in the 1960s, children to learn only two languages — tion research institute, not wishing to
NEP 2020 again reimposes Hindi on Tamil and English (cf. the NEP 2020’s be identified.
children of the state. three-language formula) and scraps Stakeholder participation remains
Therefore, in 2022 the state’s the class XI board exam, replacing it another sticking point. Civil society
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) with continuous evaluation. groups argue that the process leading
government constituted a committee Savvy educationists have welcomed up to SEP 2025 was not sufficiently
chaired by retired Justice D. Muru- the intent and direction of SEP 2025 transparent. They contend the time
gesan to formulate a separate and dis- and the curriculum design. Dr. S. allotted for public debate and scru-
tinct State Education Policy for Tamil Somasundaram, a Chennai-based tiny of the Justice Murugesan Com-
Nadu. In July 2024, the Murugesan educationist, says that curricular over- mittee’s draft was inadequate. “The
Committee submitted a draft SEP. The haul is overdue and “has the potential government has assembled an impres-
latest development is that on August to change how children experience sive committee to draft the new K-12
8, the state government appointed a learning, especially if the new cur- curriculum but people still don’t know
high-powered committee chaired by riculum truly values conceptual over enough about everything that SEP
Anil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, the memory-based learning. The state 2025 proposes. Without transparen-
state’s school education minister to government’s focus on Tamil history cy, trust might become a casualty and
draft a new K-12 curriculum. and culture, life skills, and innovative parents may prefer to enrol their chil-
The committee — comprising lead- pedagogies could give students a more dren in schools affiliated with CBSE,
ing academics, researchers, and edu- balanced education than conventional CISCE or international exam boards,”
cationists — will play a central role in exam-centric models.” says a parents-rights advocate.
shaping classroom learning for 9 mil- However, there is apprehension Despite these apprehensions, the
lion public (government) schoolchil- about the government’s capabil- government maintains that the com-
dren across the state. Among others ity to overhaul the entrenched school position of the curriculum committee
the curriculum committee comprises education system. Teachers contend will result in a syllabus of academic
V. Narayanan, chairman, ISRO, R. that revising curricula across nearly rigour and child-centred learning. Of-
Ashwin, well-known cricketer, and 37,000 government and aided schools ficials say the involvement of senior
Sultan Ahmed Ismail, member of will require unprecedented levels of researchers, higher-education pro-

22 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2025