CHENNAI: State Education Policy High-Level Committee chairman Justice D Murugesan on Thursday dismissed allegations that there was interference from government officials in its functioning. Reacting to accusations by Prof. L Jawahar Nesan, who resigned from the committee on Wednesday, Murugesan said they were baseless.
In a statement, Murugesan said the allegation that the committee and chairman are functioning in an undemocratic manner is false. He also denied the accusation that the State Education Policy is being formulated along the same lines of National Education Policy, adding, “The committee is presently deliberating the inputs received from the members on various points and work on formulating the education policy is still in progress.”
When contacted by TNIE, T Udhayachandran, secretary to the chief minister, denied allegations that he had threatened Jawahar. “There were some differences of opinion among the members of the committee. When it was brought to my notice, I impressed upon them to work in tandem to achieve the desired outcome,” he said.
Murugesan’s stated that all the committee members were told to form sub-committees to deliberate and submit reports before February, 2023. The time limit was extended till the end of March at the request of some of the members.
Jawahar constituted the sub-committees in the first week of January and did not submit the inputs till March. He had requested time till the end of July and the same was accepted by the committee. In the meantime, the committee decided to deliberate on inputs received from other members. Accordingly, deliberations were scheduled from May 4 to June 6, the statement said.
When the deliberations commenced on May 4, Jawahar requested to postpone any final deliberation. It was clarified that the deliberations were only preliminary and the final deliberations will be made after his inputs are received. He handed over a copy of his initial policy inputs to the chairman at the time of the meeting. In the absence of a soft copy and considering its volume of 232 pages, the committee resolved to take up these inputs for discussion on May 11, it further said.
“Neither the committee nor the chairman authorised Jawahar Nesan to act as convener of the high-level committee and he was authorised by the committee to act only as a convener of the sub-committees formed by him,” Murugesan added
“The committee members assure the people of Tamil Nadu that the deliberations and its formulation of the State Education Policy continue to be an independent, collaborative and comprehensive exercise involving all stakeholders and keeping in mind the terms of reference more particularly the socio-economic conditions, historical legacy and the future needs to enhance the education framework and upliftment of our children,” the statement added.
Jawahar Nesan also conducted a press conference on Thursday where he reiterated his allegations there was pressure from senior bureaucrats to adopt several provisions from the National Education Policy.
