TN govt reconstitutes Curriculum Design Committee, ISRO ex-chief Mayilsamy Annadurai to head

CHENNAI: The government on Monday reconstituted the Curriculum Design Committee tasked with developing the State school curriculum and syllabus, appointing ISRO former director Mayilsamy Annadurai as its chairman.

The move comes weeks after the chairman of the existing curriculum committee, Sultan Ahmed Ismail, stepped down on June 2 following indications from the newly elected TVK government that it would constitute a new panel to steer curriculum reforms.

The school education department has appointed a new 17-member committee with three-year tenure. Besides Annadurai, members include TV Venkateswaran, scientist and professor at IISER Mohali; physicist Rita John; Tamil scholar M Sudhandhiramuthu; botanist N Madhivanan; historian T Ashokan; IT expert S Angel Rathnabai; English language teaching expert Uma Raman; mathematician P Mahaveer; artist Maniam Selvan; archaeologist K Rajan; educationist R Chandana Devan; DIET principal M Selvam; national award-winning government school teacher S Dhilip; and Right to Education activist KSD Anantajit Makia. The Director of SCERT will serve as the Member-Secretary, while senior school education officials will be ex-officio members.

The committee has been mandated to develop the State curriculum and syllabus. The government has also authorised the Director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to constitute sub-committees for syllabus development, textbook preparation and other academic activities.

In November 2025, the then DMK government had constituted a High-Level Curriculum Expert Committee, headed by then School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, and a Curriculum Design Committee chaired by Sultan Ahmed Ismail.

Before its reconstitution, the curriculum committee had completed and released the Term I textbooks for Classes 1, 2 and 3, which are being used in schools during the current academic year.