Education is the gateway of culture and the National Education Policy is an attempt to thrust the culture of the Hindi heartland on the entire populace of the nation, VCK president Thol. Thirumavalavan has said.
Speaking at a conference organised by the Movement Against National Education Policy here on Saturday, he said, “A State can have a uniform education policy, but to impose a single education policy for a nation as diverse as India is an attempt to kill the pluralistic democratic set-up.”
Noting that the draft NEP was released only in Hindi and English, contrary to the tradition of such drafts being released in all the 18 scheduled languages, Mr. Thirumavalavan said this pointed to the hidden agenda of the BJP government at the Centre which, he alleged, wanted to gradually impose Hindi. He criticised the three-language policy of the NEP as a means of imposing Hindi on non-Hindi-speaking States.
“The policy doesn’t offer any special attention or package to socially and educationally backward communities. Already, the Central government has imposed exams like NEET and is robbing the poor and rural students of equal opportunity. Now, the Centre has introduced another exam for obtaining an MBBS degree. Too many filtrations will put students from humble backgrounds at a disadvantageous position. It is not fair,” he said.
The VCK leader advocated shifting the subject of education from the Concurrent list to the State list. “Education should be made a State subject so that every State can devise an education policy that suits it,” he said.
In a recorded speech that was played at the conference, Former Vice-Chancellor of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, Professor V. Vasanthi Devi, opined that the NEP undermined State rights and the federal set-up of the nation.
“Education is the most decentralised subject, where the State has a say in framing the policy and the syllabus. The NEP puts States like Tamil Nadu and Bihar on the same plank and undermines the efforts of progressive States like Tamil Nadu that have already reached an advanced stage in education,” she said.
