CHENNAI: Congress MP from Tiruvallur constituency Sasikant Senthil and BJP state president K Annamalai sparred over the language policy being adopted by the Tamil Nadu government and the centre, on their X handles.
While answering a question recently at a press conference about why he has been advocating the three-language policy in Tamil Nadu despite the state performing better in many educational parameters than the northern states with the two-language policy, Annamalai said people are looking into the gross enrollment ratio alone when it comes to education in Tamil Nadu but failed to see the state is faring poorly in UPSC examinations and in the number of students getting into IITs and medical colleges. Education is not about the number of schools and colleges but also quality of education, he added.
Responding to it on social media, Senthil said Annamalai, instead of answering the question posed to him, meandered to the UPSC examination. The performance of Tamil Nadu candidates in UPSC exams went down because the (Narendra) Modi government made clearing the CSAT mandatory in 2015. While the comprehension part of the CSAT is in Hindi for north Indian candidates, for the south Indian candidates it is in English.
Commenting on this, Annamalai said, “Real social justice can be rendered by implementing a uniform educational system for students studying in private schools in urban areas and the students of government schools in rural areas. While the children of DMK functionaries are studying in private schools, the quality of education for government school students has not improved. What prevents you from questioning the DMK government on this?” Annamalai asked.
Continuing the debate, Senthil said Annamalai failed to answer a straight question and was beating around the bush.