Education in Tamil Nadu

Last updated

Education in Tamil Nadu
TamilNadu Logo.svg
Government of Tamil Nadu
Department of School Education (Tamil Nadu), Department of Higher Education (Tamil Nadu),Department of Employment and Training (Commissionerate of Employment and Training)
General details
Primary languages Tamil, English
System typestate
Enrollment (2010)
Total12855485
Primary9797264
Secondary1873989
Post secondary1184232
District level literacy (2011 data) Tamil Nadu Literacy Map 2011.png
District level literacy (2011 data)

Tamil Nadu is one of the most literate states in India. The state's literacy rate is 80.33% in 2011, which is above the national average. A survey conducted by the Industry body Assocham ranks Tamil Nadu top among Indian states with about 100% Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in primary and upper primary education.

Contents

Education Administration or Authority

School education

The structure of education in the state is based on the national level pattern with 12 years of schooling (10+2+3), consisting of eight years of elementary education, that is, five years of primary and three years of middle school education for the age groups of 6-11 and 11–14 years, respectively, followed by secondary and higher Secondary education of two years each besides two years of pre-primary education. The entry age in class 1 is 5+. Pre-primary classes form age group 3 to 4. The higher secondary school certificate enables pupils to pursue studies either in universities or in colleges for higher education in general academic streams and in technical and professional courses.

Education in Tamil Nadu has been a challenge of access and relevancy. The state ranks 12th for literacy for men and 13th in literacy for women. [1] These statistics appear satisfactory, the dropout rate of 21% is still of concern, although less than the national average. [1] The dropout rates for children aged 5–18 are higher for girls (35.3%) than boys (26.7%). [2] Rural students endure hardship in accessing education. For instance, in the towns of Dharmapuriand Arco, students often may need to walk anywhere from “3-6 km to reach a middle or highschool”. [1] The disparaging statistics also cut along religion and caste. Notably, Christian children are less likely to drop out of school from ages 5–18, than Hindu children that are backwards and scheduled castes. [3] In order to understand the cause for these disparities, one must explore the history of education in the state.

In pre-colonial times, Brahmin children (of both genders) were taught "elementary education" by a tutor at home inside the agraharam. [4] A watercolor painting called "Hindu school at Poona" depicts children studying. [5] As seen in the picture, the school is confined within the agraharam and there are children of both genders. [5] Children of other castes, sometimes, went to “government elementary schools in nearby villages”. [4] People who were not Brahmin weren’t allowed inside the agraharam. [4] This level of caste separation continued into colonial times. Educated people like scholar, teachers, and bureaucrats were Brahmins. [6] Specifically, men who were Brahmin were more likely to be “literate in vernacular languages and sometimes Sanskrit”. [6] Eventually the shift from wanting an eastern education to an English education happened in the Maratha Kingdom of Tanjore. [6] At the turn of the 19th century, the Maratha Deshastha and Telugu Niyogis were far more prominent than the Tamil Brahmins. [7] The Deshatha’s were a “strong, tight knit group” and had “long experience with administration”. [7] This group would eventually decline and in their space the Tamil Brahmin’s would take over. The first sign of this change was when the Maratha’s added English to their education. [7] Another sign was the grand opening of Madras High School in 1841. [8] This school was one of “the first attempts to disseminate Western education in South India”. [8] Schools like these allowed the Tamil Brahmins to rise from “lowly positions” to “Madras government service” and “deputy collector” and eventually become “the core of a new administrative elite”. [8] The Tamil Brahmins mostly went into sectors of medicine and engineering. [9] Although, engineering prospects were low because the Public Works Department was hesitant about employing Indians. [10]

After independence, there were efforts made to make education access more available to people of lower classes. The Madras state government created a 25% quota for “college places and government jobs”. [11] This allowed people of Other Backwards Classes (OBC) to get more seats. [11] In 1980, the quota increased to 50% which had a special note about 18% of that 50% should be for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. [11] Although, this system of quotas was not perfect as it resulted in “lower-middle-class Brahmins…without good education qualifications” from getting secure government jobs. [11] In private colleges, these brahmins usually have to pay “high capitation fees’” in order to get a seat. [12] The gender gap in education however was not as easy of a solution. Women’s marriage prospects were regarded as more important than their education until “the end of the twentieth century”. [13] In the 20th century, even “Brahmin girlswere rarely educated beyond primary school”. [13] The push for women’s education coincided with marriage prospects as more educated men wanted wives who were educated. [13] This allowed for women to start going to secondary school, college, and higher education.

One of the biggest populations that suffered and are still suffering from accessibility of education is the rural population in Tamil Nadu. Most of Tamil Nadu’s population (60%) survives on “low-productivity agriculture”. [14] The wages from this type of work can be “very low”, which affects the quality of education that children who belong to agricultural families can acquire. [15] One solution to this problem was the Noon Meal Programme. This program was implemented in “rural areas of Tamil Nadu” in June 1982. [16] This allowed students to get a “daily freenutritious meal of 400-odd calories”. [16] The program was first given to children ages 2–10 years. [16] It was extended to all “pre-primary and elementary schools in Tamil Nadu”. [16] Not only did this program give an incentive for rural families to send their children to school, it reduced the dropout rates by 90% in July 1982. [17] It also “increased enrollment in primary schools” by 70%. [17]

Enrollment

There were a total of 12,855,485 children enrolled across the state as of 2010, with 9,797,264 students in primary, 1,873,989 in secondary and 1,184,232 in higher secondary classrooms.

Tamil Nadu Board of Secondary Education

Tamil Nadu Board of Secondary Education, established in 1910, is under the purview of the Department of Education, Government of Tamil Nadu, India. The State Board of School Examinations (Sec.) & Board of Higher Secondary Examinations, Tamil Nadu (SBSEBHSE) also known as State Common Board School Education [18] evaluates students' progress by conducting three board examinations-one at the end of class 10 and the others at the end of class 11 & 12. The scores from the class 12 (combined with the class 11)board examinations are used by universities to determine eligibility and as a cut-off for admissions into their programmes.

Medium of instruction

Common:

Peculiar Cases:

Accreditation

All recognized schools belong to one of the following accreditation systems:

Exceptions to the above rule include a few schools that follow the Montessori method, International Baccalaureate, IGCSE or the American system.

Directorates

The Minister of Education, who is a member of the state legislature, is in overall charge of education in the state. The following Directorates implement those education aspects which are under the control of the School Education Department.

Government of Tamil Nadu's scheme

Some of the schemes introduced by the Tamil Nadu government in school education are

ITI Education

Higher education

Tamil Nadu has 37 universities, 552 (in 2014) engineering colleges. and 1150 arts college, 2550 schools and 5000 hospitals. Tamil Nadu Directorate Of Technical Education (TNDTE) under the control of the Tamil Nadu Higher Education Department deals with Diploma, Post Diploma, Degree, Post Graduate courses and Research programmes. It also regulates the establishment of technical institutions including commerce institutions such as Typewriting, Shorthand and Accountancy.

Universities

College of Engineering, Guindy, the oldest engineering school of India Anna-university.jpg
College of Engineering, Guindy, the oldest engineering school of India

Two types of universities in Tamil Nadu are,

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iyer</span> Tamil Brahmin caste

Iyers are an ethnoreligious community of Tamil-speaking Brahmins. Most Iyers are followers of the Advaita philosophy propounded by Adi Shankara and adhere to the Smarta tradition. This is in contrast to the Iyengar community, who are adherents of Sri Vaishnavism. The Iyers and the Iyengars are together referred to as Tamil Brahmins. The majority of Iyers reside in Tamil Nadu, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syama Sastri</span> Indian musician

Syama Sastri or Shyama Shastri was a musician and composer of Carnatic music. He was the oldest among the Trinity of Carnatic music, Tyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshitar being the other two.

Niyogi Brahmin is a Telugu Brahmin subcaste native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, but are spread throughout South India and Maharashtra. The traditional occupations of the Niyogi Brahmins are settled cultivation and priesthood. But majority of them took up various secular vocations including military activities and karanams. They were associated with administration, economics, literature, music composing, politics, scholarly, scientific, engineering, defense and warfare careers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parangimalai</span> Hillock in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Parangimalai is a small hillock in the Chennai district of Tamil Nadu, India, near the neighbourhood of Guindy and very close to Chennai International Airport. By extension, it is also the name of the neighbourhood surrounding the hillock.

Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and North Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Brahmins are also concentrated in the states of Telangana (which was earlier part of Hyderabad State and Berar Division), Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh (Which was earlier part of Central Provinces and Berar) Historian Pran Nath Chopra and journalist Pritish Nandy say, "Most of the well-known saints from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were Deshastha Brahmins". The mother tongue of Deshastha Brahmins is either Marathi, Kannada or Telugu.

Anti-Brahminism is a term used in opposition to caste based hierarchal social order which places Brahmins at its highest position. Initial expressions of Anti-Brahminism emerged from instances of pre-colonial opposition to the caste system in India, ideological influences during the colonial period, and from a colonialist Protestant Christian understanding of religion in the 19th century, which viewed "Brahminism" as a corrupted religion imposed on the Indian population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nambudiri</span> Malayali Brahmin caste from Kerala, India

The Nambudiri, also transliterated as Nampoothiri, Nambūdiri, Namboodiri, Namboothiri and Nampūtiri, are a Malayali Brahmin caste, native to what is now the state of Kerala, India, where they constituted part of the traditional feudal elite. Headed by the Azhvanchery Thamprakkal Samrāṭ, the Nambudiris were the highest ranking caste in Kerala. They owned a large portion of the land in the region of Malabar District, and together with the Nair monarchs of Kerala, the Nambudiris formed the landed aristocracy known as the Jenmimar, until the Kerala Land Reforms starting in 1957.

Vadama, meaning "Northerners", are a sub-sect of the Iyer community of Tamil Brahmins. While some believe that their name is an indication of the fact that they were the most recent Brahmin migrants to the Tamil country others interpret the usage of the term "Vadama" as a reference to their strict adherence to the Sanskrit language and Vedic rituals which are of northerly origin.

The Secondary School Leaving Certificate is a certification obtained by a student on successful completion of an examination at the end of study at the secondary schooling level in India. The SSLC is obtained on passing the grade 10 public examination, which is commonly referred to as 'class 10 board examinations' in India. SSLC is a common eligibility examination popular in many states in India, especially Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The SSLC is also called Secondary School Certificate (SSC) in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and also as High School Certificate (HSC) in Madhya Pradesh and also as Matriculation in many states of India.

Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC), Higher Secondary School Certificate, Higher Secondary Education Certificate (HSEC) or Intermediate Examination is a secondary education qualification in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. It is equivalent to the final year of high school in the United States and A level in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H. S. S. Lawrence</span> Indian academic

Harris Sam Sahayam Lawrence was an Indian educationalist born in Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Periyar and the Indian National Congress</span>

Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, also known as Ramaswami, EVR, Thanthai Periyar, or Periyar, was a Dravidian social reformer and politician from India, who founded the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. In 1919 Periyar Ramaswamy joined the Indian National Congress after quitting his business and resigning from public posts. He was the chairman of Erode Municipality and undertook Constructive Programs spreading the use of Khadi, picketing toddy shops, boycotting shops selling foreign cloth, and eradicating untouchability. In 1921, Periyar was imprisoned for picketing toddy shops in Erode. When his wife as well as his sister joined the agitation, it gained momentum, and the administration was forced to come to a compromise. He was again arrested during the Non-Cooperation movement and the Temperance movement. In 1922, Periyar was elected the President of the Madras Presidency Congress Committee during the Tirupur session where he advocated strongly for reservation in government jobs and education. His attempts were defeated in the Congress party due to a strong presence of discrimination and indifference. He later quit the party on those grounds in 1925.

Ashtasahasram is a sub-sect of the Iyer community of Tamil Brahmins from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamil Americans</span> Americans of Tamil birth or descent

Tamil Americans are Americans who are of Tamil origin. The majority of Tamil Americans come from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Significant minorities are from other Indian states like Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, etc., as well as from other countries like Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Higher Education (Tamil Nadu)</span> Government department in Tamil Nadu, India

The Department of Higher Education is one of the departments of Government of Tamil Nadu. Established in 1997, the department is responsible for formulating policies and regulations for higher education in the state.

Christopher John Fuller is an emeritus professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has studied and written extensively about the people of India, particularly with regard to subjects such as Hinduism, the caste system, and the relationship between globalisation and the middle-classes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of School Education (Tamil Nadu)</span> Government department of Tamil Nadu state, India

The Department of School Education is one of the departments of Government of Tamil Nadu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vembaukum family</span>

The Vembaukum or Vembakkam family were one of the two preeminent Brahmin dynasties in the Madras Presidency, dominating the Mylapore clique alongside the Calamur clan, and 'possess(ing) an enormous presence in the... bureaucracy of the capital and its surrounding district(s)', whose historical presence began in the 1820s, with the sprawling clan famously having begun holding yearly family conferences by the 1890s to preserve their dynastic unity, political cohesion and influence, and wealth.

References

  1. 1 2 3 R. Aruna, "'Learn Thoroughly': Primary Schooling in Tamil Nadu," Economic and Political Weekly 34, no. 18(1999), 1011
  2. ↑ Ron Ayres and Manuela Torrijos Simon, "Education, Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods in Tamil Nadu:Inequalities, opportunities and constraints," Review of Political Economy 15, no. 2 (2003): 219, doi : 10.1080/0953825032000064896
  3. ↑ Ron Ayres and Manuela Torrijos Simon, "Education, Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods in Tamil Nadu:Inequalities, opportunities and constraints," Review of Political Economy 15, no. 2 (2003): 217, doi : 10.1080/0953825032000064896
  4. 1 2 3 C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2014), 36, accessed November 7, 2023, ProQuest Ebook Central.
  5. 1 2 Carpenter, William. Hindu School at Poona. 1818. Victoria Albert Museum, London, England.https://www.vandaimages.com/2007BM6807-Hindu-school-at-Poona-by-William-Carpenter-Pune.html
  6. 1 2 3 C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2014), 61, accessed November 7, 2023, ProQuest Ebook Central.
  7. 1 2 3 C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2014), 62, accessed November 7, 2023, ProQuest Ebook Central.
  8. 1 2 3 C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2014), 63, accessed November 7, 2023, ProQuest Ebook Central.
  9. ↑ C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2014), 68, accessed November 7, 2023, ProQuest Ebook Central.
  10. ↑ C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2014), 69, accessed November 7, 2023, ProQuest Ebook Central.
  11. 1 2 3 4 C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2014), 90, accessed November 7, 2023, ProQuest Ebook Central.
  12. ↑ C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2014), 91, accessed November 7, 2023, ProQuest Ebook Central.
  13. 1 2 3 C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan, Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2014), 92, accessed November 7, 2023, ProQuest Ebook Central.
  14. ↑ Ron Ayres and Manuela Torrijos Simon, "Education, Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods in Tamil Nadu:Inequalities, opportunities and constraints," Review of Political Economy 15, no. 2 (2003): 214, doi : 10.1080/0953825032000064896
  15. ↑ Ron Ayres and Manuela Torrijos Simon, "Education, Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods in Tamil Nadu:Inequalities, opportunities and constraints," Review of Political Economy 15, no. 2 (2003): 215, doi : 10.1080/0953825032000064896
  16. 1 2 3 4 Rajan, S. Irudaya, and A. Jayakumar. “Impact of Noon Meal Programme on Primary Education: An ExploratoryStudy in Tamil Nadu.” Economic and Political Weekly 27, no. 43/44 (1992): 2372.JSTOR   4399067.
  17. 1 2 Rajan, S. Irudaya, and A. Jayakumar. “Impact of Noon Meal Programme on Primary Education: An ExploratoryStudy in Tamil Nadu.” Economic and Political Weekly 27, no. 43/44 (1992): 2375.JSTOR   4399067.
  18. ↑ "List of School Boards" (PDF). www.education.gov.in (Ministry of Education, Government of India).
  19. ↑ "Government Directory". www.india.gov.in.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.