Art of matter: Tamil Nadu schools have theory

COIMBATORE: Painting classes in schools in the state will no longer be about brushes and sticky acrylic paints alone. From the next academic year, students will have theory classes where they will learn about the intricacies of art from volumes of books specially designed for them.
The school education department is formulating an allnew curriculum for painting, hitherto left to the discretion of teachers who were limited by their own skill and exposure. Not just painting, sports education too, for the first time in the state, is set to move from the dusty grounds to classrooms. "Physical education too will have theory classes. We will teach about diet, rules of the games, health aspects, about the masters in various sports,'' said a senior in the school education department official.

"We are formulating syllabus for music and tailoring too,'' he said. School education minister K A Sengottaiyan is likely to make a formal announcement on this in February, sources said.

According to the school education department, there were several representations to streamline sports, arts and music education in schools. So, when the government decided to revise syllabus for all the subjects, a decision was taken to formulate curriculum for these subjects considered supplementary to core subjects.


'Students were not taught about styles of masters'

"The syllabus is designed keeping in mind the age of the students in each class and will have both theory and practicals. History of art, famous works and artists will be included. The council will meet in a week to finalize the syllabus,'' said an art teacher involved in the process.

Earlier, in the absenceof a syllabus, art teachers fell back on random publications to teach sketching and painting. "Students were not taught about great masters in art and their styles,'' said an art teacher.

Light, shade, perspective, elements, principles of art and other technicalities will be taught. Children will be taken outside the classroom, to parks and other recreational centres and askedtodraw and sketch.

"For art, there will be syllabus for Classes I to XII. For music, physical education and tailoring, we will have syllabus for classes 1 to Class 10,'' said a State Councilfor Education Research and Training official.