CHENNAI: The Directorate of Elementary Education (DEE) is introducing a ‘100-day challenge’ starting in the third week of February to prepare and equip students in Classes 1 to 5.
In the last academic year 2024-25, the Tamil and English reading skills of students studying in primary classes of 4,552 schools and the basic skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in arithmetic were measured using an assessment developed and provided by the State Educational Research and Training (SCERT) along with teacher trainers from the regional resource centres.
This year, it has been proposed to include more than 14,000 schools and children who are ready for the 100-day challenge in the current 2025-26 academic year. The challenge will begin in the third week of February.
“The 100-day open challenge to improve the reading and learning skills of primary class students started in December 2024 for three subjects: Tamil, English and Mathematics was a success. This initiative was undertaken in addition to other programmes implemented in schools to improve the learning and teaching activities while also improving the reading and learning abilities of students,” said a department official.
However, such a challenge in primary schools of TN commenced when K Valarmati, the school head of T Pudur Panchayat Union Primary School, invited the Education Minister in November 2024 to interact with her school children and inspect their learning abilities.