School entry age to remain 5 years, says TN education secretary B Chandra Mohan; SEP aims for future ready, inclusive learning

Time of India

7 hours ago

Tamil Nadu's school education policy prioritizes future-readiness through a two-language approach, conceptual clarity, and life skills. The entry age remains at five, and the existing 10+2 system continues.
School entry age will continue to be five years, says school education secretary B Chandra Mohan . In an interview to TOI on Saturday, a day after the release of the state education policy (SEP) for school education, he discusses the objectives of the policy, how the govt plans to achieve them, and addresses criticism that the SEP is similar to the national education policy (NEP).
Edited excerpts:
■ What is the objective of the state education policy?
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To build an inclusive, equitable, resilient, and future-ready school education system in Tamil Nadu. Technology is changing, requirements are changing, and the socioeconomic profile of the state is changing. Artificial intelligence is going to change everything as we know it. We have to prepare children for the future, though we may not anticipate everything that will happen. Making our children future-ready is the focus of the SEP and the vision behind it.
■ How do you plan to achieve it?
Many ways. The two-language policy will connect us to our culture, roots and identity, giving us a context to who we are, where we come from and what we want to achieve. It helps us understand the societal context and lived reality of our people. English proficiency will help us connect to and navigate the world, opening doors of opportunity and progress.
Focus on conceptual clarity, contextual application of concepts, scientific temper, experiential learning, problem solving and working with diverse teams are skills that will help.
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Physical education for fitness and health. Life skills will help sharpen students' minds and prepare them to face real-life challenges with confidence and adaptability.
■ Educationists say the SEP doesn't have broader ideas related to school education.
Access to schools was the primary concern of govts for the last many years. Now, the focus is on quality and transformational education.
■ There's criticism that the SEP appears to be similar to NEP except for a few provisions.
In the educational discourse anywhere in the world, classifications such as primary, upper primary, secondary, and higher secondary are standard.
The inputs at these levels are defined by appropriate learning outcomes. There may be some overlaps in some aspects. For example, children from Class I to III have to learn basic literacy and numeracy. This is not only at the national level, but across the world. The difference is in what kind of emphasis you are giving, what is the content you are teaching, and how you contextualise it.
Every child will learn about his village, district, state, nation, culture, mores, festivals, arts, history and this will enable him to stay connected to his roots and build character and identity.
■ SEP for school education does not mention early childhood education.
The original report is much larger containing three sections – early childhood education, school education, and higher education. We have now brought out the school education part. The departments concerned are working on the other parts and will shortly be releasing them.
■
NEP mentions six years as the school entry age. Tamil Nadu follows five years. What will it be now?
What exists and is being practised has evolved over a period of time as per local needs. The age of school entry will continue to be five years. There are many such things we have been following, which we will continue to follow.
■ NEP also mentions the new school education system of 5+3+3+4. But, the SEP says there will be only board exams from Class X onwards, and it indicates that the 10+2 system is to be continued.
As I said, whatever we are currently following, we will continue to follow.
■ SEP stresses assessment reforms. Are open-book exams a possibility in the near future?
We are due for the regular review of the school curriculum. We will basically ensure that the curriculum is redesigned and rationalised with focus being future skills, strong conceptual understanding, problem solving skills, scientific temper, climate literacy, digital literacy, and financial literacy. When you are revamping the curriculum, it becomes necessary and essential to change your assessment tools to check whether these objectives are achieved or not.
So, we are planning to revamp the assessment system. Details will be worked out by the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and the Directorate of Government Examinations in consultation with experts.
■ How does the policy plan to eradicate drug abuse, caste violence, and sexual abuse from school campuses?
In the SEP, there is an entire chapter that talks about safe, inclusive schools and holistic child development. We want to ensure, through various strategies, that schools become institutions of social integration.
Especially now, we are seeing caste-based issues cropping up in schools. The govt has taken a firm view that this is not acceptable. We will ensure that the learning and activity are so designed that children learn, play, and grow together with mutual respect and work as a team based on diversity.
We will also ensure gender-sensitive, child-friendly infrastructure in the schools. We also want to improve the mental health and emotional well-being of students.
■ Some also criticise that the existing schemes are given as solutions to future problems. How do you respond to this?
A new policy does not mean that it negates everything that was done in the past. A good policy builds on what was done in the past, learns lessons, and reimagines them for the future. That is what this policy is designed to do.
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