The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered setting up of a committee under the state chief secretary to go into the controversy related to the introduction of “uniform system of education” for all the schools in Tamil Nadu. The controversy had arisen due to certain amendments introduced by the new Jayalalithaa government in the law passed by the previous DMK-led government to implement the uniform education system.
In view of the urgency involved in the matter due to the commencement of the academic session, a bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar set a deadline of three weeks to the committee to submit a report to the Madras high court to enable it to pass an appropriate direction to the state regarding implementation of the uniform system of education, designated as “Samacheer Kalvi Thittam”.
However, the top court directed that the prevailing system would continue for Class 1 and Class 6 — the base for primary and middle school education — in order to maintain the continuity and serve the interests of the students better. In this regard, the court also took into consideration the fact that the state had spent `200 crores on the publication of text books for all classes.
The Jayalalithaa government after coming to power, had effected certain changes in the Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010 passed by the previous DMK-led ministry. The AIADMK government had accused the previous Karunanidhi administration of “politicising” the school education in the “garb” introducing the uniform system.
The changes were made in the law by the Jayalalithaa government on the ground that the syllabus prepared by the previous government had certain “deficiencies”.