Updated on: Saturday, October 23, 2010
‘Samacheer Kalvi' school textbooks for all classes, which have to be given for printing, will be finalised by this month-end.
Those involved in preparation of textbooks for various subjects up to Class X have been asked to submit the material in CD form by Tuesday in order to quickly take a final decision on printing.
K. Ganesan, Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, who is also currently in-charge of school education, has called for a meeting of all senior officials/textbook preparation panel members on October 26 to finalise the ‘Samacheer Kalvi' textbooks.
“We are expediting the process and a final call will be taken by the end of this month. All those concerned with the textbook preparation have been asked to submit the material in printable form,” Mr. Ganesan told The Hindu on Friday.
Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation A.S. Jeevarathinam is to meet the School Education Department officials of all districts during his visit to Madurai on Saturday.
The State government has introduced the ‘Samacheer Kalvi' system for classes I and VI.
From the coming academic year, there will be uniform textbooks for other classes up to Class X by integrating the State Board, Matriculation, Anglo-Indian and Oriental streams.
When contacted, the Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation said that 186 CDs were yet to be received for printing.
“We were given 11 CDs and the printing of those textbooks is in process. After the review meeting on Tuesday, the CDs for other textbooks should be ready,” he said.
More printers
Mr. Jeevarathinam said that 54 printers had been selected so far to undertake the work. Steps were being taken to get more printers in order to meet the huge volume required to be completed well before the start of next academic year.
“We were told that there will be totally 197 textbook titles under the ‘Samacheer Kalvi.' The textbooks for classes I and VI are ready.”
All the schools were asked to submit their indents soon based on their requirement.
“Printing of ‘Samacheer Kalvi' textbooks will have to be completed by March so that the logistics can be completed for smooth distribution of textbooks to students of all districts,” Mr. Jeevarathinam said.
The Director of School Education, Director of Matriculation Schools and Director of Elementary Education are among those who would attend the textbook finalisation meeting.