Chennai: Tamil Nadu Minister A Rajmohan on Monday proposed changes in the school education curriculum grooming students to become future-ready and to end the standard rote learning.
Announcing a shift in policy from rote learning, he said students should not be labelled as "bright" or "average" based on their performance, as these classifications are neither accurate nor supportive of a child's development.
Textbooks ought to be simplified and redesigned and restructured to alleviate cognitive overload, the School Education minister said, adding that students should be allowed to learn at their own pace.
Addressing core pedagogical challenges, the minister highlighted that dense pages packed with heavy text often triggered confusion among young learners.
"Under the proposed reforms, schoolbooks will be restructured to simplify textual content and alleviate cognitive overload," Rajmohan told the Assembly while winding up the debate on the demand for grants for his department.
The curriculum will also be updated to address specific learning hurdles, such as visually or phonetically similar letters and sounds that frequently confuse primary school students.
"They should be made future-ready and encouraged to become thinkers, creators and should be taught prompt engineering," the minister said and stressed upon making Physical Training (PT) period mandatory.
In his opening remarks, Rajmohan expressed gratitude to his party leadership for enabling his elevation in public life and extended political acknowledgments across party lines - party mentors, colleagues, grassroots social media volunteers, as well as opposition leaders, including former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and former Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin.
"Moving forward, our educational framework will recognise students as children who learn at their own speed," he said.
Comparing young learners to plants, the minister emphasised that a nurturing, and secure environment is essential for individual growth, asserting that slow academic progress reflects a failure of the surrounding environment rather than the child.
This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.