Steps being taken to bring all children to schools: Minister

The Department of School Education is taking every possible step to admit all the children above the age of 5 in schools and taking teaching-learning practices designed by the heads of the schools to all other institutions to achieve improved learning and consequent results, Minister for School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi has said.

The Minister, before participating in a State-level Achievement Survey meeting held in Palayamkottai on Monday, told reporters that the Tamil Nadu Government was encouraging the heads of the government and the government-aided schools by recognising their home-grown successful models being practised in their schools, if any, for better learning and outstanding results.

These innovative initiatives were being introduced in other schools which were lagging behind in achieving requisite learning targets and desirable results.

“This meeting has been organised to provide the much-needed platform for the heads of the successful government and government-aided schools to explain their novel teaching ideas the children can easily understand. Such models are being introduced in other schools that are lagging behind in achieving better results. This is the 23^rd meeting of this series, which is also being utilised for understanding the genuine needs of the schools,” Mr. Mahesh said.

On the closure of 207 government schools in Tamil Nadu due to poor students’ strength, the Minister said the government was taking every possible step to guarantee cent per cent admission of children above the age of 5 in the schools to bring them to educational stream. Even though a significant migration of the people in the post-COVID period in search of employment and a sharp fall in birth rate had been reasons behind the fall in admission in the schools, the real reasons were being identified by visiting such families directly.

“If a child is not found to be admitted in the school during our survey, we persuade its parents to bring the kid to the stream of education. It shows the government’s commitment in bringing every children to the school. Thanks to our efforts, over 4 lakh new students have been admitted in the government schools during this academic year,” Mr. Mahesh claimed.

On Union Minister Anurag Thakur’s recent observation that Hanuman was the first to enter the space while speaking with the schoolchildren, the Minister said, “He (the Minister) has shared his idea based on religious faith which I don’t want to interfere or contradict. We, along with scientific facts, impart education to our children”.