The Tamil Nadu government would soon constitute two expert committees to examine the various provisions of the National Educational Policy (NEP 2020) approved by the Union Cabinet last week, and look into the implications on the education system in the State.
During a meeting of Ministers and senior officials chaired by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami at the Secretariat on Monday, various aspects of the NEP were discussed.
“The meeting on Monday was the first to discuss the NEP. It has been decided to constitute two committees — one for Higher Education and another for School Education Departments to examine the various aspects of the new policy,” a senior official told The Hindu.
Another official said that no decision had been taken on various aspects of the NEP.
“The policy is comprehensive and there is a need to look into each and every aspect of the NEP to analyse which of those are favourable for Tamil Nadu and our government’s stand and which are against.”
Since the three-language formula proposed by the NEP was a politically-sensitive topic, the Chief Minister chose to issue a statement opposing it, while other aspects would be examined by the expert committees.
In his three-page statement, Mr. Palaniswami rejected the three-language formula proposed by the Centre and said the Tamil Nadu government would “never” implement it but would continue with only the two-language policy. He also recalled having opposed the three-language policy even when the draft NEP was released.
Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, Forests Minister Dindigul C. Sreenivasan, School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan, Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani, Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar, Higher Education Minister K.P. Anbalagan, Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Minister V.M. Rajalakshmi, Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam and senior officials participated.