Defence Minister wants more girl students in the armed forces

Chennai: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she wanted to see more girl students in the armed forces and hoped that in schools like Lady Sivaswami Ayyar Girls Higher Secondary School students should join the army, navy and the air force.

Addressing in the 150th School celebrations here on Friday evening, the defence minister said the number of students from Tamil Nadu entering institutions like IITs, IIMs or IISc is as low as number of Tamil Nadu candidates in science and technology, R&D, IAS or IFS.

She said earlier three out of ten candidates from Tamil Nadu used to clear all India competitive exams.

Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said everyone talks about CBSE but the Tamil Nadu state board should be no less. to increase encouragement and presence of Tamil candidates across fields, it has to start at the school level where substantive changes have to be brought into the curriculum.

State education minister K A Sengottaiyan said the revamped syllabus launched last year would help to win any competitive exam and the new Class XII syllabus would include 12 skill-based courses.(UNI)