Chennai, Feb 15 The Tamil Nadu School Education Department is set to launch an education assessment survey to evaluate the standard of education in the state.
This decision follows criticism from Governor R. N. Ravi and Tamil Nadu BJP President K. Annamalai, who claimed that the state lags behind Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, citing data from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER).
Speaking at a recent event, Governor Ravi criticised the state's education system, stating that 75 per cent of high school students in government schools struggle to recognise two-digit numbers and 40 per cent are unable to read a Class II textbook.
He further alleged that students were being promoted without proper academic evaluation, which, according to him, posed a significant threat to the state and the country.
The Governor also attributed the poor learning levels of 60 per cent of students to inadequate teaching.
In response, Tamil Nadu's School Education Minister, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, announced that the assessment survey will be conducted among ten lakh students.
He also questioned the credibility of the ASER survey, conducted by the Pratham Foundation in association with District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs).
He pointed out that ASER is a household survey that does not assess students in schools and is conducted by 25 lesser-known organisations in the state.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Pratham Foundation in Tamil Nadu clarified that they had worked with DIETs to survey 12 districts in 2018. They also mentioned plans to engage B.Ed students as volunteers for future surveys. These volunteers will undergo training before the survey is conducted to ensure the accuracy of the results.
The minister also highlighted the impact of the non-release of funds under the Samagra Shiksha (SS) scheme, which he said has affected 40 lakh students in Tamil Nadu.
He noted that while the scheme has been in place since 2018, the Union government has recently linked it with the PM-SHRI initiative, causing disruptions.
A committee set up by the state's School Education Department to review the PM-SHRI scheme found that it introduces a three-language policy, which contradicts Tamil Nadu's existing language policy. The state government has raised concerns over this move, emphasising its commitment to protecting the state's education system and linguistic policies.
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