CHENNAI: The high-level committee constituted to formulate the State Education Policy (SEP) has sought an extension from the state government. The move assumes significance as a member of the committee, L Jawahar Nesan, resigned from the panel recently.
The resignation of Nesan coupled with the committee seeking extension reflect that the panel is likely to miss its June deadline to submit the draft of SEP to the state government. Chairman of the committee D Murugesan told TNIE they have written to the state government seeking extension of the time limit of the committee. Though he refused to divulge details about how much extension the committee has sought, he said, “It’s up to the government to decide on how much time to give.”
When the committee was formed last year it was announced that it would submit its report by June. However, looking at the current circumstances, sources said, it seems difficult that the committee will be able to meet the deadline. They added the panel is yet to start drafting the SEP.
The committee is claimed to have just identified the problems and it has to do a lot of paperwork and research in addressing the issues before coming up with appropriate solutions that can be incorporated in the SEP.
“The recent controversy and resignation of an active member of the committee will definitely have an impact on the overall functioning of the committee. It is a fact that not all committee members are actively participating in drafting of the SEP, so we will have to streamline many things to ensure that we come up with a solid and strong SEP,” said a member of the committee on condition of anonymity.
The state government last year had formed the eight-member high-level committee to formulate the State Education Policy. Last week, L Jawahar Nesan resigned from the committee alleging that the committee was functioning in an undemocratic manner. He had also alleged that the influence of bureaucracy in the committee is moving it towards accepting the National Education Policy 2020. However, in a joint statement issued on Monday, the members of the committee denied all the allegations.