The Tamil Nadu government has reconstituted the panels created earlier to revise the school curriculum and has formed a new body titled the State Curriculum and Textbook Development Committee. The committee will be headed by former ISRO scientist Mayilsamy Annadurai.
Under the previous DMK government, two panels had been constituted: an expert committee led by Minister Mahesh, and a curriculum design committee led by environmental expert Dr Sultan Ahmed Ismail. It had been stated then that the curriculum prepared by the design committee would be finalised by the expert committee.
The new committee is stated to include all the subject-wise experts who were part of the earlier arrangement. The members named include T.V. Venkateswaran (scientist, IISER), Rita John (Registrar, University of Madras), M. Sudhandhiramuthu (former professor, Presidency College), N. Madhivanan (former HoD, Botany, University of Madras), and D. Ashokan (Professor of History, Bharathidasan University).
Other members listed are S. Angel Rathnabai (IT expert, Central Institute of Educational Technology, New Delhi), Uma Raman (English language teaching expert), P. Mahaveer (Principal, A.M. Jain College), Maniam Selvan (artist), K. Rajan (former history professor, Puducherry University), R. Sandhana Devan (educationist), M. Selvam (Principal, teacher training school, Namakkal), Sri Dilip (graduate teacher, government higher secondary school, Sathiyamangalam, Villupuram) and K.S.T. Anand Ajith Makia (education rights activist).
The Director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has been appointed as the member secretary, while directors of the School Education Department, Elementary Education Department, Directorate of Private Schools and the Directorate of Government Examinations have also been named as members.
