Chennai: This year turned out to be a year of records for the state school education department. A total of 198 Class 10 students secured the top three ranks in the board examination held in April this year, 29,905 students scored centum in Maths, 38,154 scored full marks in Science and 19,680 secured 100 out of 100 in Social Science.
Besides this, the State School Education Department decided to regulate schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
The overall pass percentage in Class 10 increased to 89 per cent, an increase of 2.8 per cent over last year.
The pass percentage among boys stood at 86 per cent compared to 83.4 last year whereas pass percentage among girls rose from 88.9 per cent to 92 per cent this year.
The state school education department did not leave any stone unturned to take Tamil Nadu’s school education to the next level.
The state government took all steps to fill up over 50,000 vacant teacher posts in government schools.
This, according to officials, would ensure that all schools would have teachers to impart quality education to students from various economic backgrounds.
To counsel slow learners and those with learning difficulties, the school education directorate launched 10 mobile vans to counsel students across the state.
To realise Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s vision 2023, the state government launched a cloud-computing laboratory in government schools this year.
As a pilot project, the state-of-the art curriculum and laboratory were launched at the Government higher secondary school at MGR Nagar in the city and the Government girls’ higher secondary school at Sriperumbudur.
To place government schools in the state on the world Internet connectivity map, the school education department gave 128 government schools Internet connectivity for online classroom sessions.
Indians spend Rs 10K cr to study abroad
Chennai: With lack of funding for research and flexibility in the higher education system, about eight lakh Indian students have spent over Rs. 10,000 crore during 2012-13 on studies abroad.
A recent study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) revealed that on an average, an IIT student pays only US$ 150 per month as fees while those opting to go abroad, shell out USD 2000 to USD 6,000 fees per month in equivalent institutions in countries like the USA, Canada, Australia, and UK.
While commenting on the study, ASSOCHAM secretary general D. S. Rawat said that India needs quality institutes on the lines of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) for students wanting to pursue careers in management, accounting, engineering and chartered accountancy.
“Such an approach will not only restrict outgoing foreign exchange but also spread global standards within the country to increase the employability of students in industry and research institutions. In India, a meagre 12 per cent of students join higher education institutions, USA tops the list with 82 per cent of enrolment in higher education,” he said.
Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras was of the opinion that Indian higher education institutions except for the IITs, IIMs and other top government institutes lack research grants, this hindering the growth of the higher education sector in the country.
“Look at the Indian School of Business (ISB). They have opened several campuses; a good quality private institute can provide more seats to students, whereas institutes like IITs are not permitted to increase our intake.
This makes students look for options in countries like the US and UK,” he said.
Debate continues on regulating tech edu
Chennai: The year 2013 can be termed neither momentous nor trivial for the education sector while the debate on who should regulate technical education in the country continues.
The Supreme Court in its verdict early this year limited the All India Council for Technical Education’s (AICTE) role to an advisory one, which means that it could only prescribe uniform standards of education in affiliated colleges of a university by sending a note to the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The AICTE had, for several decades, regulated over 13,000 engineering colleges in the country and this verdict sparked debate among academicians and confusion on how the UGC would control technical education institutions.
For the first time in the recent past, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) across the country witnessed a new phenomenon this year: more seats going vacant. This issue too was a point of debate for academicians: whether the IITs had lost their reputation.
A section of the IIT faculty felt that with several opportunities and options available for a student it was obvious that more seats would go vacant in the prestigious technology institutes.
The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry did not accord sanction to any new deemed university this year and it needs to be seen how the new government in 2014 would handle the deemed university issue.
As far as higher education in Tamil Nadu is concerned, the good news is the creation of a new university for music and fine arts — the Tamil Nadu Music and Fine Arts University — with the Chief Minister as chancellor. Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa also announced setting up of a new university on policing and internal security in the state.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University, started in 2004, remained headless for over two years without a permanent vice-chancellor, registrar, controller of examinations and director of distance education.
