CHENNAI: Joining the issue with BJP state president K Annamalai, the state government on Sunday ruled out the possibility of implementing a three-language policy. The government also denied as wrong the contention of Annamalai that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been included in the curriculum as mentioned in the New National Education Policy (NEP) and clarified that the state government unveiled the AI Policy in 2020 ahead of the NEP.
The state government has signed an MoU with Microsoft to introduce Technology Education and Learning Support Programme (TEALS) and provide AI training to students. This is the first-of-its-kind programme in India. “Annamalai should not try to twist or change history. The state government denies his contentions,” the statement added.
“The Tamil Nadu government has not accepted the NEP. However, the state has already achieved many educational targets set by the policy. The NEP said student-admission ratio should reach 50%. But in 2019-20 itself, Tamil Nadu had achieved 51.4%. Though the NEP said a 50% ratio should be achieved by 2035, Tamil Nadu would reach 100% in 2035. Hence, after including the achievements of Tamil Nadu in NEP and claiming that the state is working per the NEP is laughable,” the statement added.
The government also recalled that in 1997, the then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi unveiled the first IT policy for Tamil Nadu and appointed a minister for that. He was also instrumental in setting up TIDEL Park and other IT infrastructure in the state. Karunanidhi also introduced an e-governance programme in Tiruvarur and all government departments have been computerised. As a follow-up, an IT policy was unveiled in 2020 and all these developments took place ahead of NEP.
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