TIRUCHY: Mentioning the three-language policy a “backdoor entry” attempt to enforce the National Education Policy (NEP), Minister for School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on Friday said Tamil Nadu will never fall victim to such Union government schemes.
Reacting to Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan’s letter written in reply to Chief Minister MK Stalin, Poyyamozhi said, “The minister while acknowledging the greatness of the Tamil language has insisted on Tamil Nadu implementing the PM SHRI scheme. He is thus casting bait and waiting to see if the state would fall for it.”
Asserting that the two-language policy adopted in 1968 has been a part of the state’s educational and linguistic identity, Poyyamozhi said, “All major political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the DMK and the AIADMK, support it. It is not a political issue but is about the rights of our people.”
Listing out twelve “key” reasons for rejecting the NEP, the minister stressed that Tamil Nadu’s “commitment to linguistic identity, academic success and federal autonomy remains steadfast”.
“Our two-language policy has ensured high literacy rate and global competitiveness. A third language is unnecessary and is an indirect attempt to impose Hindi,” he added.
While remarking that forcing students to learn Hindi contradicts the NEP’s own promise of choice-based learning, he further said, “We have never banned Hindi or any other language. Institutions like the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha continue to operate freely. Language should be a choice, not a compulsion.”