The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Education department to hone students' skills

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Education department to hone students' skills

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUCHI, MARCH 21. The Education department will identify students with potential for excellence, especially those in Government schools in Tiruchi district, and hone their skills. The department has already formed a panel comprising teachers, psychiatrists and other experts to help students identify their areas of interest.

Academic excellence has so far been determined only on the basis of students' performances. Consequently, many students who excelled in particular fields found themselves sidelined. The department believes that students should dispel the thought that a career in medicine or engineering was the logical end of education. Several career avenues are available in the backdrop of globalisation and students ought to know their choices at an early stage.

As most students in Government schools were first-generation learners, the department would act as a nodal agency in making the academic community nurture the students' interests and check dropouts.

The initiative would not only help them gain confidence, but also inculcate in them a balanced attitude towards various professions, hopes the Chief Educational Officer, R. Baskara Setupathi. The department plans make use of the School Linkage Cell attached to the Department of Educational Technology, Bharathidasan University.

There were multispecialities in each discipline and the students did not have adequate information on the approach to be adopted, Mr. Setupathi told The Hindu . The department would accord priority to organising counselling-cum-motivation programmes in government schools, government-aided schools and self-financing schools.

A mechanism to get recognition for as many academic performers was being evolved. At present, only those excelling in standards X and XII examinations enjoyed the limelight.

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