In a major embarrassment to the AIADMK government, the apex court made it mandatory for Tamil Nadu to implement the uniform school syllabus with immediate effect.
For the first time in the history of school education in Tamil Nadu, more than a crore students, studying in Class 2 to 10, lost classes for over 70 days.
After a prolonged legal battle, the state government has conceded to implement the Supreme Court verdict immediately. Interestingly, the verdict seems to have lifted the sagging morale of the DMK after the poll debacle.
Concerned at the plight of the students, besides educationists and social activists, the political class (including all the allies of the AIADMK) joined the chorus to urge the government to respect the July 18 verdict of the HC and not go on an appeal. But the AIADMK did not budge.
The latest judgment has come as a huge setback to the state government. The hasty printing of textbooks under the old syllabus, even while the hearing in the case was progressing, cost the state Rs 200 crore.
The previous DMK regime had clubbed all the four streams – state board, Matriculation, Oriental and Anglo-Indian - into one, under the uniform system of school education amid strong opposition from the influential matriculation school lobby. The tough stand taken by the AIADMK government cost not just the students but also tarnished Jayalalithaa’s political image.
The unwanted insertion of a poem penned by the then chief minister M. Karunanidhi for the Semmozhi conference and an indirect reference to Chennai Sangamam promoted by his daughter Kanimozhi, now in Tihar jail, provoked the AIADMK regime to shelve the scheme.
“It’s indeed a great victory for us. The basic concept behind samacheer kalvi is that there should be no discrimination in our system of education. Right from civil society, academicians to the highest judiciary, all have given their approval to the policy implemented by the previous DMK regime,” remarked former school education minister Thangam Thennarasu, who played a pivotal role in implementing the new system.
“We wish to reiterate that we have not done anything wrong.Our intention and quality of the books have the approval of the SC now,” Thennarasu told DC.