CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu has shunned the National School Education Ministers' Conference that commenced in Gujarat on Wednesday to register its opposition to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, with neither School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi nor the department secretary participating in the event.
The two-day conference, chaired by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, is being conducted to deliberate on strengthening the education ecosystem in the country with a focus on the implementation of the NEP.
School education department officials said TN wants to register its protest against the NEP through the boycott. The DMK-led government has strongly opposed the NEP since its introduction, and is demanding it be withdrawn. As a counter to the NEP, the government has formed an expert committee to formulate its own State Education Policy (SEP).
The controversy over NEP has become even more heated in the State since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Chennai last week. While addressing a gathering in Chennai, the PM said that NEP would be beneficial to the students of Tamil Nadu. This was followed by a war of words between Governor RN Ravi and Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy over the issue.
At different convocation ceremonies of State universities, the Governor reiterated the need to implement NEP in the State and urged people to read it properly before opposing it. Ponmudy retorted people were opposing NEP with a full understanding of all its features. Education department officials said, many of the suggestions put forth by the State when the draft NEP was released were not taken into consideration in the policy.
A senior official said, "There are aspects that need discussion like Hindi imposition, entrance tests. The Centre has never acted in a positive manner t o settle the concerns raised by us over NEP."
Ponmudy recently said the NEP imposition will only increase dropouts in schools and colleges. A few activists, however, feel that the State could have got a better opportunity to put forth its point strongly by attending the conference instead.
"In conferences like this when policies are being discussed, votes of the States are important. The same issue happened with NEET. The Centre argued about dissent and why the State was not present in the conferences when it was being discussed. We must attend and then contradict," said educationist V Balachandar.
The majority of the education rights activists and educationists welcomed the boycott and called it a strong 'statement' against NEP. "Boycotting does make a statement that we are against the policy. The NEP does not provide equal access to education and a State, that has been voicing for equal rights can deny it. But, it is time the government comes out with procedure for an alternative education policy," said Prince Gajendra Babu, an education rights activist.
"The NEP does not provide equal access to education and a State, that has been voicing for equal rights, can deny it. The State must come out with a procedure for an alternative policy," said Prince Gajendra Babu, an activist.
The two-day conference is being conducted to deliberate on strengthening the education ecosystem in the country with a focus on implement- ation of the NEP