BENGALURU: The state government is constituting a committee to formulate a new state education policy, scrapping the New Education Policy (NEP) introduced last year, said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, while Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said they are going to scrap the policy implemented by the previous BJP government.
Mentioning that education is a state subject, Siddaramaiah said the NEP has been formulated without taking state governments into confidence. “Education policy cannot be centrally imposed. It was a conspiracy,” he claimed. In a country like India which has varied cultures and languages, NEP is not acceptable. It has not been accepted by many states, including those ruled by BJP. The Tamil Nadu government has already clarified that it is not going to implement NEP, he added.
“NEP will not help SC, ST and rural students. Educational institutions do not have the necessary infrastructure to implement this education policy. It has only created unnecessary confusion,” said Siddaramaiah, attending a meeting of education department officials and vice-chancellors.
Shivakumar said that they are scrapping NEP as promised in the party manifesto before the Assembly election. “We will not allow the Nagpur Education Policy in Karnataka. During the previous tenure of the Congress government from 2013 to 2018, we had constituted the Karnataka Knowledge Commission. Its recommendations will be included in the state education policy,” he added. Higher Education Minister Dr MC Sudhakar, Primary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa, litterateur Baraguru Ramachandrappa and senior government officials attended the meeting.