Tamil Nadu setting high standards

Updated on: Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Tamil Nadu is aiming at securing 100% pass rate in government schools across the state, on par with private unaided schools in the state. To achieve this target department officials should not take leave till the exams are over, school education minister N R Sivapathy said.

Giving district education officers in the state a pep talk during a review meeting in the run up to the exams, minister Sivapathy said, "A private matriculation school starts in a small way, and soon grows so big that it draws the best students from the area. When the government spends so much on education why can't we do better or as well as matriculation schools," he asked. He asked the DEOs to find out how many schools secured centum pass results in the board exams last year, and set personal targets to see that they exceeded that number this year.
He said that it was the responsibility of the DEOs to ensure the smooth conduct of the exams and to see that nobody indulges in malpractices during the exams inside the exam hall or outside. Conduct meetings with the school heads regularly to check whether teachers have completed the syllabus and are revising the portions, and visit schools often, minister Sivapathy told the officials. Incentives and awards await best performing officials, the minister said.

Speaking about the arrangements made for the conduct of the board exams in Tamil Nadu, minister Sivapathy asked the officials to ensure that no school makes children take the board exam seated on the ground or elsewhere on campus. Schools where a large number of children are set to take the exam must have enough furniture to seat all the children. He asked the DEOs to ensure that they have enough scribes in hand to assist children with disabilities to take the exam.

He said that during the Budget session the Tamil Nadu government had announced that 710 middle schools in Tamil Nadu would be upgraded to high schools and 100 high schools to higher secondary schools. He asked the DEOs to check how many have been upgraded and to allot candidates to fill teaching and non-teaching post vacancies in the schools.
"Some school heads are just looking to see when the school day will end so they can go home. Some teachers also run businesses on the side. DEOs must visit the school often and ensure that such things don't happen," Sivapathy said. He asked them to ensure that DEOs run a background check on the character of part time teachers on consolidated pay drawn from the Parent Teacher Association."Because they work part time and don't know which school they would be put in next they do not take care to behave properly with the students. Give preference to married people and not bachelors while allotting work," the minister said.

Times of India

Tamil Nadu setting high standards

More Education news