Blanket ban on use of guides in Tiruvannamalai schools

The order issued on May 13 by CEO V Jayakumar has created ripples in the district as teachers were bluntly told to teach students properly and also train them to take notes instead of choosing the easier route of asking them to purchase study guides.

“I have instructed teachers to tell parents not to purchase study guides for any subject [for their wards] and even if they do so, it should not be brought to the class,” Jayakumar told DT Next. “Teachers were also advised to inform parents that learning to take notes now would stand students in good stead when they enter college as the same method would be followed there and even when they [further] undertake research,” he added.

With regard to the announcement, principals of the 2177 government schools in the district were asked to come to the CEO’s office where they voluntarily took a pledge to follow the new system. Heads of the 363 private schools here were also asked to take a similar pledge in the five DEO (District Educational Officers) in the district. The district has a total of 2540 schools offering classes from 1 to 12.

The onus is now on the teachers to come properly prepared to class so that it facilitates students to take notes in various subjects.

When asked about the order, an education official in Vellore district said, “The move should actually be welcomed as over the years, students have been made to become totally reliant on study guides without giving them a chance to think for themselves.”

Sources in the teachers’ association remarked why the government itself did not think of such an idea when the State education minister initiated steps to put government school education on a par with the rest of the country.

Study guide sellers in the district, however, are a disgruntled lot and have already made a beeline to Chennai to meet the school education directorate’s top officials to complain about their business being affected due to the CEO’s action. If the ban is implemented in other districts too, their business would be “totally affected”, a study guide seller in Vellore rued.