Slew of measures to improve school education in TN

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday announced the upgradation of 775 schools at an estimated cost of Rs 419.6 crore.

In addition, as many as 13,300 teachers would be recruited at a cost of Rs 315.30 crore, and 65 primary schools would be upgraded into middle schools and 710 middle schools into higher secondary schools.

These are part of a host of measures aimed at improving school education system with a total speding of over Rs 2,000 crore.

In a statement in the state Assembly, the chief minister said the government's aim was to improve the school education system to impart a 'real' uniform standardised education.

“Simply upgrading the schools will not result in standard education, unless infrastructure in schools is improved, efficient teacher-student ratio is ensured and well-qualified teachers are appointed,” she said.

The government would spend Rs 99.29 crore on employing 16,549 part-time teachers to improve extra curricular activities.

The chief minister also noted the recommendations of a nine-member committee headed by S Muthukumaran, which wanted the government to improve infrastructure such as classrooms, toilets, pure and hygiene drinking water and fences in all schools at village and panchayat-levels.

She said this would be implemented at a cost of Rs 1,082.71 crore. The government would also provide free satchels, geometry boxes, colour pencils and maps to students of government and government-aided schools at an estimate cost of Rs 119.48 crore from this year.

The chief minister also said a new facility would be provided to the school students under the Information and Communication Technology at Schools programme this year. The contents of the textbooks would be in a software and +1 and +2 students could make use of it.