Tamil Nadu government on Monday boycotted a virtual meeting hosted by Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on the controversial New Education Policy (NEP) saying the Union Government should consult ministers and not officials on such important issues.
State government officials stayed away from the meeting after the Centre did not respond to a letter written by Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi to Pokhriyal on Sunday seeking to involve ministers in the meeting.
Anbil Mahesh said the state government feels it is only appropriate that ministers who are representatives of a democratically elected government are consulted on such policy decisions and not officials. However, he clarified that the state government is open to holding discussions with the Union Government and was waiting for their response.
Addressing a press conference in his home town of Tiruchirapalli, 345 km from Chennai, the minister reiterated that the Tamil Nadu government is opposed to many contours of the NEP including three language policy and conduct of exams for students in standard three, five, and eight.
“None of the suggestions proposed by the DMK to the draft policy has been accepted. In our opinion, the NEP will just help people who are settled well to get education. We do not see any schemes or policies that would uplift the backward class, Scheduled Castes, and other communities. We want poor students to benefit from any education policy,” Anbil Mahesh said.
The minister also said the government suspected that the three-language formula was an “indirect” way of “imposing Hindi language” in Tamil Nadu, and maintained that the state had adopted a two-language policy since the days of C N Annadurai's Chief Ministership.
“The policy also talks about vocational training to students from standard nine. We feel this is nothing but re-introduction of the hereditary education system. The NEP needs to be discussed,” he said.
DMK, while in Opposition, had opposed the NEP and had even organised protests against the Union government. The party which owes its rise to the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu is steadfast in its opposition to imposition of the language in the state. The previous AIADMK Government had also opposed the three-language policy, and constituted a committee to study the NEP.
Anbil Mahesh said the Union Government should proceed with implementing the NEP only after consultations with state governments.
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