LKG, UKG to be introduced in State run schools from Jan

The decision to introduce kindergarten classes has come forth to increase the admission of students in government schools and retain them till highersecondary.

Costing the government Rs 7 crore, 2,381 Anganwadi centers would begin LKG and UKG classes and admit 52, 933 students across the state.

Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan on Monday said that regular classes for LKG and UKG would begin from January 2019. “Priority will be given to English medium and the timings of the classes will be decided soon,” he added.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that the students’ enrolment from the academic year 2014-15 to the current year in Tamil Nadu government schools, has reduced drastically by more than 17%.

In 2014-15 the enrolment of the students in government schools was 56,55,628 compared to 2018-19 figure of 46,60,965, registering a decrease of 9.9 lakh students.

The official said, the admissions for LKG and UKG classes would be open until the next academic year. “At present, parents, who want to put their kids in KG classes, have to depend only on private institutions. Further, most of the parents retain their kids in the private schools itself and, hence the admission in government schools has been witnessing a steep decline year after year,” he added. He pointed out that if anganwadis have kindergarten, the student’s admission would automatically increase.

“New syllabus launched by SCERT will be followed,” he said and added that new teachers would be appointed before the beginning of the classes.