Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010
No: 8 Dated: Feb, 01 2010
Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010
(Act No. 8 of 2010)
An Act to provide for Uniform System of School Education in the State of Tamil Nadu and matters connected therewith and incidental thereto.
Whereas, at present there are four streams of school education in the State under the control of the State Government, namely, State Board Schools, Matriculation Schools, Oriental Schools and Anglo-Indian Schools and these schools have separate syllabus, text books and scheme of examination and are under the control of different Boards. As a result, the standard of education in these schools are not uniform;
And Whereas, the Government are of the view that it is indispensable to evolve a uniform system of school education in the State to ensure social justice and provide quality education in the schools in the State;
And Whereas, the Government constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Thiru Muthukumaran, former Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University to examine the implementation of uniform system of school education. The said committee examined all the issues and submitted its recommendations to the Government;
And Whereas, a one man committee 'was constituted with Thiru M.P. Vijayakumar, I.A.S. (Retired)' to look into the recommendations of Thiru Muthukumaran Committee;
And Whereas, the said 'one man committee' looked into the recommendations of Thiru Muthukumaran Committee and submitted its recommendations to the Government;
And Whereas, a team of educationists under the Chairmanship of Thiru M.P. Vijayakumar, I.A.S. (Retired) visited the States of Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra and reviewed the education system in vogue in those States and the said team submitted its report on the administrative setup of the School Education department and Boards of Education, examination systems and evaluation methods adopted by those States;
And Whereas, the Government, after much deliberations, accepted the idea that all the Government schools, Government aided schools and private schools including Matriculation Schools, Anglo-Indian Schools and Oriental Schools in the State, having the common syllabus, text books and examination system will ensure social justice and provide quality education.
Accordingly, the Government have decided to implement the uniform system of school education in the State;
Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Tamil Nadu in the Sixtieth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1. Short title and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010.
(2) It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 30th day of November 2009.
2. Definition. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) "academic year" means the year commencing on the first day of June;
(b) "Anglo-Indian School" means a school approved as such under the Code of Regulations for Anglo-Indian Schools;
(c) "Board" means the State Common Board of School Education constituted under section 5;
(d) "competent authority" means any authority, officer or person authorized by the Government, by notification, to perform the functions of the competent authority for such area or in relation to such class of private school, as may be specified in the notification;
(e) "Government" means the State Government;
(f) "matriculation school" means a school approved as such under the Code of Regulations for Matriculation Schools;
(g) "oriental school" means a school approved as such by the Director of School Education;
(h) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules;
(i) "school" means,-
(i) any primary school, middle school, high school or higher secondary school maintained by the State or any local authority; or
(ii) any primary school, middle school, high school or higher secondary school established and administered or maintained by any private educational agency including minority school established and administered under clause (1) of Article 30 of the Constitution, whether receiving aid out of the State fund or not; or
(iii) any matriculation school, Anglo-Indian school or oriental school including minority school established and administered under clause (1) of Article 30 of the Constitution, whether receiving aid out of the State fund or not, but does not include a school affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education.
Explanation. - For the purpose of this clause,-
(1) "local authority" means-
(i) the Municipal Corporations of Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli, Erode, Tiruppur, Vellore, Thoothukudi or any other Municipal Corporation that may be constituted under any law for the time being in force; or
(ii) a Municipal Council constituted under the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920 (Tamil Nadu Act V of 1920); or
(iii) a Panchayat Union Council or a Village Panchayat constituted under the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994 (Tamil Nadu Act 21 of 1994);
(2) (i) primary school shall consist of Standards I to V;
(ii) middle school shall consist of Standards I to VIII or Standards VI to VIII;
(iii) high school shall consist of Standards I to X or Standards VI to X or Standards IX and X;
(iv) higher secondary school shall consist of Standards I to XII, Standards VI to XII or Standards XI and XII;
(j) "State" means the State of Tamil Nadu