The recently formed curriculum reforms committee of Tamil Nadu will invite suggestions from India Inc and representatives of industry to improve the quality of teaching and associated skills in schools, the former Vice-Chancellor of Anna University M Anandakrishnan, who heads the committee, has said.

“We need a model that will accomplish our major goals in teacher training and adoption of schools by industrial establishments. Private sector involvement will lead to an infusion of some quality into teaching,” he said during a talk on ‘Imperatives for a New School Education Curriculum’, organised by Chennai International Centre.

The 10-member committee, formed by the state government about six weeks ago to revise the syllabus in schools, will soon have detailed consultations to improve quality of teaching in schools, he added.

Anandakrishnan said the committee has met three times and more meetings will follow. Also, two sub-committees have been formed for science, mathematics and computer science.

There were four regional consultations in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Thanjavur and each one covered eight neighbouring districts. At least 300 teachers participated in each of the consultations.

While the syllabus revision will be implemented in phases, the committee is preparing to introduce new syllabus for classes 1, 6, 9 and 11 from the next academic year (2018-19).

“New curriculum, syllabi, textbooks, learning outcome manual, teachers’ manual and a training scheme for teachers – all of that would have to be in place to introduce new curriculum from next year for those classes,” Anandakrishnan said.

“In the prevailing system, children are made to run after marks. They are being prevented from learning the fundamentals of a subject,” he added.