Bharathi wrote:
>>
>>Are the school syllabuses followed/proposed in Tamil Nadu published
online?
> http://www.tn.gov.in/matric/default.asp
Very impressive site! A lot of effort appears to have gone into
preparing the matriculation school curriculum, and it is truly
commendable that it has been made available online requesting for
feedback to raise the standards of education.
Reading the material on CS reminded me of my days back in school.
Those of us from CBSE schools can recall the SUPW Classes: Boys had EG
- Electrical Gadgets and girls could opt for Sewing - where learning
was by doing things. My first EG class started with "Properties of
Magnets", and our teacher brought a couple of bar magnets to class and
taught us that magnets have two poles - North and South, like poles
repel, unlike poles attract, did a demo with the magnets, then passed
the magnets around the class letting us try it. Later, electric
bulbs, batteries, transformers, resistors and capacitors entered into
the class: but all these were referred to only by their generic names
and we were taught about their general properties. Brand or vendor
names were used only to compare market prices, quality and suitability
for use. [BTW, SUPW is short for Socially Useful Productive Work]
I wish that the whole school curriculum is based and built around SUPW
Computer Science is fairly mature, qualifies as a good vocational
subject, and has evolved standards and specifications that are vendor
neutral. Lessons taught under Computer Science should be given
general titles like word-processing, spreadsheets, database
management, operating systems, file management, programming etc. The
matriculation syllabus needs corrections, and should use subject
headings like "Database Systems" instead of "Microsoft Access", or
"Word Processing" instead of "Microsoft Word".
Could Mr. Thiagarajan please share his memorandum/suggestions here?
Probably, based on input from members of this list, we could also send
feedback as requested by the Director of Matriculation Schools, even
though we have crossed the due date, as the proposed syllabus is to be
introduced only in stages from 2005, so that the Computer Science
subject could be truly and honestly taught as a SCIENCE.
-Ramanraj.