Decision to defer scheme challenged in HC

CHENNAI: The decision of the new AIADMK government to defer implementation of the uniform syllabus scheme has been challenged in the Madras High Court.In his public interest writ petition filed on Tuesday, advocate K Shyam Sundar of Mandaveli submitted that it had been widely published in newspapers that the government had decided to stop the implementation of the syllabus for this year and to go back to the old syllabus and to constitute another experts committee.The decision was not in public interest, nor in the interest of the student community. Already an experts committee, headed by S Muthukumaran, vice-chancellor of Bharatidasan University, had gone into the issue and submitted its report favouring the introduction of uniform syllabus in the State. It was supported by a legislation also. Now that the government had taken a decision to defer the scheme, the re-opening of the schools had been postponed and steps were being taken to get the text books printed based on the old syllabus. The decision was purely political. The new government could not take shelter under the umbrella of policy decision. The expenditure incurred for printing the uniform syllabus, running to several crores of rupees, could not be allowed to go waste. It was not open to the successor government to ignore the system of education introduced by the previous government causing huge expenditure to the exchequer, the petitioner contended, and prayed for a direction to the government to continue the uniform syllabus system. The interim prayer was for a direction to the government to implement the uniform syllabus system.