BJP State president K. Annamalai on Thursday questioned how many Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Labs are functioning in government and government-aided schools in Tamil Nadu and why ICT was not being taught as a separate subject in the curriculum.
In a statement, Mr. Annamalai said as per the provisions of the Samagra Shiksha scheme, students from Class VI to XII in government and government-aided schools should be taught ICT as a separate subject. In the last three years, the Union government had allocated ₹ 1,050 crore to Tamil Nadu for setting up ICT labs in schools.
Instead of teaching ICT as a separate subject in the curriculum, it was being taught in schools in Tamil Nadu as a part of Science. Such an arrangement defeats the objective of introducing ICT to students. States such as Telangana, Rajasthan and Delhi have ICT as a separate subject in their curriculum, he said.
Further, Mr. Annamalai alleged that instead of appointing teachers who qualified Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) to teach computer science, the State government had appointed volunteers of Illam Thedi Kalvi as ICT tutors. He said this arrangement violated the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court of India on the issue.
Published – February 13, 2025 10:58 pm IST