Uniform education system: Expert panel report raises storm in Tamil Nadu

The textbooks prepared to usher in a common syllabus of a unitary State board up to class X under the USSE (Samacheer Kalvi’ in Tamil), “will provide neither equity nor quality education in its present form”, the Apex Court-directed panel’s report submitted to the high court has said.

The committee headed by the State Chief Secretary, Debendranath Sarangi and including educational experts like Y G Parthasarathy, made clear that the textbooks “require lot of modifications in order to provide good quality education to all the children in Tamil Nadu”.

After an exhaustive analysis the apex court had said texts for class I and class VI could be used while for the other classes they need to be examined. The committee found that a lesson in the class X “social science” text, had a suspected pro-DMK bias by overemphasizing its contribution.

The panel also found that Tamil textbooks for some classes have incorporated the DMK president M Karunanidhi’s contribution to Tamil Theatre and his role in getting the Centre declare Tamil as a Classical Language.

Even as the Madras High Court will from Thursday continuously hear the main petition against the AIADMK rule’s move deferring the USSE’s implementation, the panel’s report raised a political storm on Wednesday.

Hours after the committee made its conclusions known to the high court, opposition parties led by the DMK came down heavily on the panel’s composition and its recommendation to the court which will have to decide the main petition.