Impart quality education in the formative years

We want Tamil Nadu to reach greater heights in education by improving school and higher education. We have a total of about 2.5 lakh seats in engineering colleges across Tamil Nadu, but only 1.5 lakh students join the engineering stream. 

We spend considerable funds on schools, but are unable to provide top quality education in them. If we have good quality school education in Tamil Nadu, we will have fewer students staying unemployed after higher studies. 

In 2016, we should focus on changing the school syllabi to equip all students with top quality education. Several students from Tamil Nadu are unable to crack national-level competitive exams as we have been following old syllabi for a long time. It is high time we revamped our school education curriculum. 

We need to have good teachers and bring in technology in schools. We need to incorporate digital learning besides the chalk and talk method in schools. If we follow these initiatives, we can produce good quality students. The union government will soon announce the new education policy in which I expect changes in the syllabi to make students more employable. We need to motivate and involve students in research at the school level itself. 

We need to attract students for research, which will help the country progress. In the higher education sector, so far, several people have taken up faculty roles without adequate training. 

We need to provide one year of mandatory training to all those who join universities and colleges to teach. As the private sector plays a key role in higher education, universities need to create a centralised research facility for private colleges so that the quantum of research output from the state can be enhanced.