Tamil Nadu: Deadly equity

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led Tamil Nadu governments three-year old proposal (mooted in 2006 as one of its pre-election promises) to replace the states four (apart from CBSE and CISCE) school examination boards — the Tamil Nadu Secondary School Leaving Certificate Examination, Anglo Indian School Certificate Examination, Matriculation Schools, and Oriental School Leaving Certificate Examination — with a common ‘State Board for School Education, and introduce a uniform syllabus, will become a reality from the next academic year beginning July 2010. Initially, a uniform syllabus will be introduced in classes I and VI in the next academic year and gradually come into force for all classes from the start of the academic year 2011-12.Given the existence of schools affiliated with as many as six examination boards (including 200 primary-secondaries affiliated with CBSE and 52 with CISCE), admission into the states 669 arts and science colleges, 354 engineering and 17 medical colleges has always been a contentious issue with allegations of some boards setting ‘easy class X exam papers being freely traded. Thats why in 1978 the state government introduced a common class XII school leaving exam for students of schools affiliated with all four boards. The proposal of a common syllabus and school leaving exam for classes 1 to XII is an extension of the same logic. In September 2006 the state government appointed a nine-member committee headed by Dr. S. Muthu-kumaran, former vice chancellor of Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli, to examine the possibility of a uniform syllabus in schools, which submitted its report on July 4, 2007. However there was stiff opposition from private matriculation and nursery schools to the Muthukumaran Committees recommendation that Tamil should be the medium of instruction in all schools. This forced the TN government to cold store the report. Subsequently, the government appointed another committee headed by retired IAS officer and former state project director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, M.P. Vijayakumar, to amend and improve the Muthukumaran Committees report and advise its implementation. The Vijayakumar Committee, which submitted its report on August 26 this year, advised the government to leave the choice of medium of instruction — English, Tamil or other languages — to school managements. However, it made it clear that Tamil should be taught as a compulsory language until class X. Inevitably, the proposal of a common syllabus and single examination board has evoked mixed reactions from school principals and teachers given that the state has four different boards which follow different textbooks and exam systems. Currently there are 34,342 primary, 8,718 middle and 9,243 high and higher secondary schools affiliated with the Tamil Nadu State Board; 4,400 schools are affiliated with the Matriculation board; 41 schools affiliated with the AISC board and a few schools affiliated with the OSLC board. These schools follow different syllabuses up to high school (class X) and adopt the common state board syllabus for Plus Two. As indicated earlier, schools affiliated with the pan-India CBSE and CISCE are exempt from this government directive. There are no major…