CHENNAI : July 31 was the last date for submitting any suggestions or feedback about the draft New Education Policy 2019 that has caused quite an uproar across the country At a time when everyone even remotely linked to the education sector is debating the Draft National Education Policy, Dr B Ramaswamy of the State University of New York said that people in Tamil Nadu had misunderstood the controversial three language portion of the policy, “The language policy has been misinterpreted in Tamil Nadu.
No one is saying that you cannot learn Tamil. No one is forcing you to study Hindi either. It is just an option.” He was speaking at a panel discussion titled Education Essentials on the NEP at the DG Vaishnav College in Chennai on July 31 — the last day for submitting feedback on the draft policy.
Delivering his keynote address, he also said that the education policies that India has been following were only helping students get certificates but no real education. “No matter what kind of development you look at you need educational development to be the stepping stone. The NEP is a comprehensive plan towards it. Criticising the policy will only pull us back,” said Dr Ramaswamy.
The day’s proceedings were set in motion by a welcome address by chairman of Shri Vallabacharya Vidya Sabha, HK Jhaver. Social policy expert, Dr Akila Radhakrishnan, moderated the discussion.Discussing the commendable and controversial aspects of the policy, Dr Munirathna Anandakrishnan said that it would not be wise to write off the policy as totally unacceptable or embrace it in toto. “We have up to a thousand colleges affiliated under a university. It is not possible for the VC to even keep track of so many colleges. It is good that the new policy wants to abolish this system of affiliation,” said Dr Anandakrishnan while delivering the presidential address.
The former chairman of IIT Kanpur and former vice-chancellor of Anna University, Dr Anandakrishnan criticised the NEP’s proposal for a common test for admission in colleges calling it not just “atrocious” but simply “stupid”. “The Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog, headed by the Prime Minister, will be responsible for everything pertaining to education — they will tell the States what to do and what not to. The States will be left like nothing but dummies,” said Dr Anandakrishnan.
“The NEP proposes to let private universities tie-up with foreign institutions and even let foreign universities set up base her — this is great but we need to keep an eye on the legitimacy of the universities coming to India.” Accusing the Draft NEP of commercialising education, Prince Gajendra Babu, General Secretary of State Platform for Common Schools System, TN, said that the constitution mandates the government to provide free education under Article 41 of the Constitution that says that the State should make provision for the right to education within the limits of its economic capacity. “The Draft NEP says that the private players can charge as much as they wish to. Is it not the commercialisation of education?”
Former professor and V-C of National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, Dr Jandhyala BG Tilak said that the NEP draft contradicts its own proclamation of considering education as a public good — which he feels is commendable — when it talks about the privatisation of education. Dr MG Sethuraman, Professor of Chemistry at the Gandhigram Rural Institute, Tamil Nadu, said that implementation of the said vision is vital. “If you ask a student what the problem is he will say the teachers are not good, if you ask the teachers they will say the students are not good and if you ask Rajinikanth he will say system seri illa (the system is not right),” he quipped.
“The proposal for multi-disciplinary institutes is commendable. So is the proposal for the establishment of the National Research Foundation. But the major problem is getting the proper funding,” added the professor. The panel discussion ended on a lively note after Prince Gajendra Babu accused Dr Ramaswamy of one-upmanship and wondered whether the RSA would suffer the same fate — the two got into a battle of words before Dr Radhakrishnan broke them off.