Chennai, June 30:
The Tamil Nadu government on Monday reconstituted the Curriculum Design Committee tasked with developing the State school curriculum and syllabus, appointing former ISRO director Mayilsamy Annadurai as its chairman.
The move comes weeks after the chairman of the previous committee, Sultan Ahmed Ismail, stepped down on June 2, following indications from the newly elected government that a fresh panel would be formed to steer curriculum reforms.
The School Education Department has now constituted a 17-member committee with a three-year tenure. Apart from Annadurai, the panel includes T.V. Venkateswaran, physicist Rita John, Tamil scholar M. Sudhandhiramuthu, botanist N. Madhivanan, historian T. Ashokan, IT expert S. Angel Rathnabai, English language teaching expert Uma Raman, mathematician P. Mahaveer, artist Maniam Selvan, archaeologist K. Rajan, educationist R. Chandana Devan, DIET principal M. Selvam, national award-winning government school teacher S. Dhilip, and Right to Education activist KSD Anantajit Makia.
The Director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) will serve as the Member-Secretary of the committee, while senior officials from the School Education Department will be ex-officio members.
The newly formed committee has been mandated to design the State curriculum and syllabus. The government has also authorised the SCERT Director to constitute sub-committees for syllabus development, textbook preparation, and other academic activities.
It may be recalled that in November 2025, the previous government had constituted a High-Level Curriculum Expert Committee headed by then School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, along with a Curriculum Design Committee led by Sultan Ahmed Ismail.
Before its reconstitution, the earlier committee had completed and released Term I textbooks for Classes 1, 2, and 3, which are currently in use in schools across the State.