2 months on, teachers, students grapple with new state syllabus

For several months, K Suresh Raj, a Class 12 Science student from a government higher secondary school at Pallavaram, has been having a tough time with the new syllabus introduced this year. He could not go through even two topics, especially in subjects like Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry, even after the school re-opened in June.

In the beginning of the academic year, teachers and students especially, who got promoted to Class 11 and 12 thought the new syllabus would not be that tough. It has been almost two months since the schools reopened in Tamil Nadu and the board exams are just months away, but contrary to their assumptions, teachers claim that the new curriculum is quite difficult. Most of the teachers, even those in private schools, do not have sufficient background about the topics incorporated in the new textbooks.

Although the Tamil Nadu government claim that the new syllabus, especially for Classes 11 and 12, is on par with CBSE curriculum and students could crack competitive exams such as JEE and NEET, even teachers are unable to cope with the “tough” portions and “complicated” formulas in the new textbooks.

Teachers, especially from the government and government, aided schools said that they need to be adequately trained to deliver the new syllabus if the new curriculum has to show positive results. “It has been two months after the new curriculam was introduced but so far, we have not been able to cover even a couple of lessons since students could not grasp the new concepts,” L Sundaravalli, a government higher secondary school teacher, in Pammal said.

The authorities in School Education Department claim that revised syllabus rectifies the deficiencies of the earlier higher secondary Tamil Nadu State Board of School Education (TNSBSE) syllabi which was widely criticised for not including critical analytical skills that are vital to clear national entrance exams such as IIT, JEE and NEET.

A member of the curriculum framework committee constituted by the state government, and former Anna University Vice-chancellor E Balaguruswamy, said that the government has organised public hearings in cities across the state to hear the views of over 3,000 experts, teachers and authors before drafting the new curriculum framework especially for higher secondary class level.

“Major changes have been proposed in the textbooks and exams evaluation pattern with emphasis on application-oriented questions to test students’ critical thinking skills,” he said adding the new syllabus has upgraded the contents of Mathematics, Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Zoology and Botany and made several changes in the mode of evaluation”.

He, however, said it is up to the government to train teachers for handling thenew syllabus effectively by giving adequate training to them.

Most of the competitive exams including JEE, IIT, and NEET are based on Science subjects. Since during the past decade, State Board students in Tamil Nadu have not done well in competitive exams, the curriculum framework committee have ensured that all the portions related to JEE, IIT and NEET were included in the new syllabus. But, teachers say that the syllabi for Classes 11 and 12 are extremely difficult in subjects like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.

B Natrajan, a Mathematics teacher in a government-aided school at George Town, said that some of the topics such as complex numbers, trigonometry, and matrices and determinants are tough to handle. “The chapters are complicated and even teachers had to seek help to get the correct answers”, Natrajan said.

Similarly, in Physics, the introduction of extra inputs in electrostatics, magnetism and magnetic effect and in electromagnetic waves seems too tough for students. “Extra knowledge is required to derive equations under these topics and students finding it very difficult to understand,” S Mallika, a retired Physics teacher taking tuition classes for higher secondary students said. According to her, students, who faced easy syllabus in the previous year, finding hard to switch over to new curriculum. Likewise, Chemistry teachers also face a tough time in teaching Class 12 students lessons in like metallurgy, co-ordination chemistry and Chemical kinetics. “The chapters are lengthy and students need more time to learn the formulas,” said M Sundararajan, a Chemistry teacher in a private higher secondary school in Chromepet.

Teachers handling classes for the students in Biology said that the new syllabus has incorporated too much of Botanical information to the students. “Portions in morphology and anatomy of flowering plants in Botany are huge. This could have been reduced,” G Savithiri, a Botany teacher in Anakaputhur government school said.

With teachers themselves finding it difficult to understand the new syllabus, students have been unable to get the right guidance and have been looking up to private tutors to fill up the gap. But, not all tution centres are equipped to deal with the new sylabus either. “Even if we go to tuition centres, we may not get right coaching in the new syllabus as those tutors too have little information on the new chapters,” said P L Ravikumar, a Class 12 student of a private school in Nungambakkam.

H Varalakshmi, a medical aspirant, who is preparing for NEET exams this year, said, “Even guide books that were available in stationery shops could not explain clearly how to solve the Mathematics problems that were included in the new syllabus.”

A senior official from Tamil Nadu State Council of Educational Research and Training, a nodal agency in preparing the new curriculum to the students, said that the textbook development teams have prepared teacher’s handbooks and students’ workbooks, which would act as a comprehensive guide for getting answers to various complicated subjects, that has been incorporated in the new textbooks. “Every three months one-week training programme also been organised for teachers to prepare the students well on the new syllabus,” he said.

According to him, the new syllabus focuses on raising academic standards and the state government would ensure that the proposed syllabus is implemented rigorously so that school education in Tamil Nadu regains its past glory and its students can clear national competitive examinations as they did in the past. School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan told DT Next that the issue was not brought to his notice. “If we get any such complaints, we will take sufficient action to ensure that students do not suffer,” he said.