Tamil Nadu’s proposed State Education policy (SEP) is a tool for political agenda, alleged Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar here on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters, he said, “Tamil Nadu government is also following the National Education Policy 2020 through its yet to be drafted new State Education Policy. The 65-page NEP document, available in the public domain, and the SEP of Tamil Nadu, are almost similar. But for political agenda, the Tamil Nadu government, Ministers and leaders may tell no to the NEP. when actually, they are following it.
“The State Education Committee must be formed and it is mandatory. But it was not formed to minimise the opposition in the State. But in practice, they are following the NEP,” he said.
The Minister said, “nobody can claim that they are better in all aspects.” The Ministry of Education had already invited States to recommend their best practices while formulating the NEP, he said..
“We will incorporate suggestions sent in by States, and even in district and block levels for improving the NEP,” the Minister said.
Regarding NEP’s emphasis on regional language, he said, “we want all higher education to use mother tongue as the medium of instruction.”
“We have introduced 12 regional languages, including Tamil, and adding English there are 13. Already in engineering institutions, question papers were set and first-year books have been printed in all the 13 languages.”
The Minister, while addressing the Sri Krishna College of Technology students at the graduation ceremony, said NEP is the single biggest change in the Indian education system. It aligns with the United Nations 30 Sustainable Development Goals, which aims to be achieved by 2030, he said.
SKCT board director M. Balasubramaniam, chairperson and managing trustee S. Malarvizhi, principal S. Maragatham, and trustee K. Adithya participated in the function in which 1,037 students received degree certificates, including 11 rank holders.
