SEP spells out broader vision, but silent on panel’s key recommendations
CHENNAI: More than a year after the Justice D Murugesan-led committee submitted its recommendations for formulating the State Education Policy (SEP), Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday released the SEP for school education alone with the policy on higher education yet to be readied.
While the released policy articulated the state’s broader vision to make its school system future-ready with focus on inclusivity, equity, and safety with many progressive measures, it has remained silent or left room for ambiguity on a few key recommendations made by the Justice Murugesan panel.
For instance, the panel, which worked on its recommendations for over two years after being constituted in April 2022, said that formal schooling can begin at Class 1 on completion of five years of age. In contrast, the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP), against which Tamil Nadu wanted to formulate its own policy, recommends six years.
TN enrols students in Class 1 at the age of five at present. However, the SEP has not clearly spelled out an age despite a section of parents expressing concerns about the difference between SEP and NEP, particularly while enrolling their wards to schools that do not follow state board.
It is noteworthy that the latest ASER report (2024) said that 61.3% of children in TN entered Class 1 at the age of six, well above the national average of 40.2%, indicating a gradual shift towards the NEP’s recommended age.
The panel called for strict regulation of private schools, which included bringing them under more public scrutiny to prevent commodification, formation of School Management Committees in all schools except those run by minorities, bringing CBSE schools under the purview of fee determination committee, and regulatory mechanisms to ensure that private schools do not overburden their students.
However, the SEP has not commented on these aspects. With TN firmly opposed to NEET and the culture of mushrooming of coaching centres, the panel recommended the government to consider banning such centres or at least introduce regulatory mechanisms, by noting that such a mechanism is currently non-existent.
This again has not been discussed in the SEP. The panel also recommended that the government should utilise the funds it provided to private schools for admitting students under the Right to Education (RTE) Act instead on improving the infrastructure of government-run schools.
Though the government did not conduct admissions under RTE for 2025-26, mainly citing non-release of Samagra Shiksha funds from the union government, the SEP did not say whether the government has decided to stop or discourage RTE admissions.
Welcoming the policy at large, PB Prince Gajendra Babu, an activist working for progressive reforms in education, however, took exception to the state singling out certain schools as model schools instead of focussing equally on all. He said this went against the spirit of Samacheer Kalvi introduced by M Karunanidhi.
E Balagurusamy, former vice-chancellor of Anna University, criticised the policy for lacking a clear framework with implementable action plans.