THREE YEARS AFTER the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK government grudgingly implemented samacheerkalvi or common school curriculum (through the Uniform System of School Education (USSE) Act, 2010 legislated by the DMK government in January 2010) which mandates a common syllabus for all 52,303 government primary-secondaries and 10,934 private unaided schools affiliated with the Tamil Nadu State Board of School Examinations (TNSBSE) ” CBSE and CISCE schools are exempt ” complaints about poor quality textbooks, diving learning outcomes and dumbed down standards have become  increasingly strident. Unsurprisingly, a rising number of former Matriculation Board schools forcibly affiliated with TNSBSE in 2010, are forwarding affiliation applications to the more progressive Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
According to a study ” Impact and Effectiveness of Samacheerkalvi ” conducted by the Chennai-based Don Bosco Centre for Education Research and Training together with Talent Ease, a skills development company, although samacheerkalvi enables activity-based learning, the quality and execution of the syllabus is unsatisfactory.
The study, released on June 20, which interviewed 344 respondents including 106 students, 106 teachers, 109 parents and 23 school heads, posed seven questions regarding the syllabus and its impact. On whether samacheerkalvi was a better syllabus, all groups felt it was better than the former state board syllabus, but 72 percent of parents, 46 percent of  teachers and 57 percent of school heads opined that the syllabus of the former Matriculation Board followed by private matriculation schools before introduction of samacheerkalvi, was superior. Moreover, the CBSE syllabus was decisively preferred across all groups.
The survey conclusions confirm the pessimism of 5,934 private school managements who have been critical of the populist samacheerkalvi programme from the time it was thrust upon them by the Karunanidhi-led DMK government (which ruled in Tamil Nadu  between 2006-2011)  in 2010. With typical irresponsibility, to provide œequity in education, in January 2010, the DMK legislated the USSE Act 2010, abolishing Tamil Nadu™s four school examination boards ” the state, Matriculation, Anglo-Indian and Oriental school boards ” and decreed a common curriculum and textbooks for all schools affiliated with TNSBSE.
To its credit, the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK government, which swept the state™s legislative assembly elections in May 2011, postponed implementation of samacheerkalvi and amended s.3 of the USSE Act, 2010 (which states that every school in the state shall follow the common syllabus and textbooks as may be specified by the Board for each subject) on grounds of infirm syllabus and poor quality textbooks. After intense litigation on July 18, 2011, the Madras high court mysteriously set aside the AIADMK government™s postponement directive and ordered implementation of the USSE Act.  Unwilling to comply with this order, the state government filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court but the court refused to stay the high court™s judgement and ordered the state government to implement samacheerkalvi statewide.
NOW, THREE years down the line, educationists, teachers and parents are almost unanimous that students in TNSBSE-affiliated schools aren™t learning enough and will find it difficult to compete with students from CBSE and CISCE schools in national entrance exams in which critical thinking and analysis skills are required for entry into the country™s best engineering, medical and commerce colleges. œThe current science syllabus is especially watered down as students write only one paper of 100 marks combining physics, chemistry and biology with 25 marks reserved for science practicals. With such a weak base in science, students are finding it tough to cope with competitive national entrance examinations after class XII. Moreover, the English language syllabus could do with a lot of improvement, says senior educationist Shalini Pillai.
Unsurprisingly, heads of several private Matriculation schools have promoted new CBSE-affiliated schools, and the previous trend of students of CBSE/CISCE schools shifting to state board schools after completing class X to avail liberal assessment and admission into the best state government-run higher education institutes has been reversed. Therefore the number of schools (499) affiliated with the CBSE board in Tamil Nadu is multiplying.
œEquity in education isn™t just about what students are learning but also about how they are taught and the supportive learning environment provided by schools. The syllabus is just one factor with other aspects such as improving teacher quality and providing training, quality textbooks, extra-curricular activities and life skills being equally important. Unfortunately the state government has overlooked these crucial aspects of quality education and focused only on a uniform syllabus, says Rev. John Alexander SDB, rector and correspondent, Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School, whose management has recently promoted a CBSE-affiliated school.
Quite clearly, reckless and populist government interference has made a mess of Tamil Nadu™s hitherto highly-reputed K-12 education system.  Unless corrected quickly, it could also ruin the state™s excellent reputation for developing human capital.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)