Stakeholders in the academic sector are looking forward to the likely unveiling of the State Education Policy (SEP) in 2023. The 12-member panel to draft the SEP, headed by Justice D. Murugesan (retd), has held several rounds of meetings with the stakeholders.
“We had public hearings and the committee members are interacting with teachers and experts. Each subject expert will prepare a report, and we will compile our response,” Justice Murugesan said. According to him, the policy is not drawing on the National Education Policy, 2020, which the Centre has started implementing.
The SEP, expected to be in place by April-May, may have answers to the four-year UG programmes recently announced by the University Grants Commission as part of the NEP. The UGC is also introducing multiple entry and exit options, and held a meeting on Thursday to explain the Academic Bank of Credits framework. State universities have only gone so far as Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) for additional credits. At schools, universities and colleges, a huge backlog of faculty vacancies needs to be filled.
The next academic year is expected to see new initiatives to make education exciting for students and teachers. The Namma School Foundation has opened doors for public participation in improvements to school infrastructure and education.
Schoolchildren had a glimpse of what is to come — they got to watch films, learn music, theatre and art, interact with filmmakers, theatre personalities and musicians.
Soon after taking the oath, Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Udhayanidhi Stalin advised schools to maintain the sanctity of the PT period. His interaction with sportspersons raised hopes that the sports period would not be taken over for special classes.
In the past year, Anna University revamped its curriculum, introducing stronger industry-academia interaction. A similar exercise was taken up for polytechnic colleges. The teachers call it industry 4.0 initiative.
The State’s Naan Mudhalvan scheme aimed at skilling students for the industry is expected to bring into the job market trained youngsters.
“Naan Mudhalvan is receiving an excellent response from students as well as faculty. As of now, it is [covering] only engineering and polytechnic [education]. We will get it extended on a large scale to arts and science colleges. Also, a new learning management system will be introduced throughout the State,” said Higher Education Secretary D. Karthikeyan.
Accreditation of courses and trained teachers to teach emerging subjects are the other areas that require attention, some faculty members point out.
