SC asks panel to examine TN school books row

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday set up an expert panel to examine the syllabus and text books for over two crore school children in Tamil Nadu sought to be altered by Jayalalitha government as they reportedly eulogised DMK and its controversial MP Kanimozhi.A bench of justices B S Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar, however, said the Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act 2010 would continue to be implemented for Class I and VI during the present academic session.The apex court passed the direction on the state's appeal challenging the High Court order staying the amendement made by Jayalalitha government in the Uniform Education School System Act 2010 introduced by the previous DMK government to withhold its implementation.The Act passed in 2010-2011 by the previous DMK government had introduced a common curriculum for school children till Class X as prior to that the state had four streams-Matriculation, Anglo-Indian, Oriental and State Board which lacked quality.The high court had on June 10 stayed the amended provision inserted by the new government which claimed it wanted to withold implementation of the Act as the syllabus and contents in subjects like Mathematics, Science and English undermined quality education.It had also argued that the previous government had incorporated several references to boost the image of the DMK government, Kanimozhi and had also introduced her poetry as part of the syllabus.