Chennai: More than two months after schools reopened for this academic year, Targeted Help for Improving Remediation and Academic Nurturing (Thiran), the govt’s flagship scheme to improve foundational learning skills of Classes VI-IX students, is yet to kick off.Officials from the school education department said Thiran was likely to be dropped as it was introduced by the previous govt and was subject to criticism that it alienated students on the basis of their academic strengths. “Several districts have achieved the desired outcomes under the scheme. A new scheme is likely to replace Thiran. But nothing has been decided yet,” said an official. School education director N Latha was unavailable for comments.Launched in July 2025, Thiran was intended to help students with a weak foundation in math, science and language. As many as 7.46 lakh students were identified for intervention under the scheme on the basis of an assessment survey conducted by the state planning commission in 2024, which identified key learning gaps in these subjects.The students were given separate learning modules, separate assessments and 90-minute sessions on each subject per day. A student’s progress was tracked through EMIS portal and an endline assessment was carried out in Feb this year. The official said that nearly 6 lakh students passed the test and returned to their normal day-to-day lessons.“There is no idea what to do with the ones who still need the scheme. We have not received any instruction from chief education officers to commence the scheme. We have moved these students back to normal classes now. But they still haven’t caught up,” said the head of school in Egmore.A few schools, however, are continuing the scheme. “We teach these students every day after classes. But the student is no longer recorded as a ‘Thiran’ candidate on the EMIS,” another school head said.When asked, Chennai chief education officer M Kabir said that in Chennai, 97% of the students selected under the scheme had passed the test. “The remaining students have caught up and the scheme is no longer necessary. Schools have been communicated the same too. The students who haven’t caught up are very negligible in number and the respective schools will be able to help them individually,” he said.He, however, denied knowledge of a new scheme to replace Thiran.
