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 and said its two-language will continue. 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.
"There is no possibility for implementing the three-language policy in Tamil Nadu and it will not become a reality as being day-dreamt by Annamalai," an official statement said.
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 totally 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% in the ratio. 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 Tamil Nadu is working per the NEP is laughable. Nobody needs to take classes in Tamil Nadu on IT-related technologies since the state is already ahead of many other states in the country. In the next 10 years, Tamil Nadu will be at the forefront of implementing AI. Teachers and students will be given training in AI and machine learning etc in the coming days," the statement added.
The government also recalled that as far as Information Technology is concerned, Tamil Nadu has a history. On July 16, 1970, Periyar EV Ramasamy took part in the Tamil Madram celebrations organised at Guindy Engineering College (now Anna University), and out of his own interest, requested the professors to take him to IBM computer (model 1620) placed in the first floor. The computer was able to tell the day if someone fed a particular date. Periyar also tested that and later predicted that in future, everyone would have a communication gadget in his pocket.
Later, in 1997, the then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi unveiled the first IT policy for the Tamil Nadu government and appointed a minister for that. Besides, he was also instrumental in the setting up TIDEL Park and other IT infrastructure in the state. Later, Karunanidhi also introduced an e-governance programme in Tiruvarur district and since then, all government departments have been computerised. As a follow-up of this, an IT policy was unveiled in 2020 and all these developments took place ahead of the National Education Policy.