An open-book test will be held for those in first and second years, and students doing postgraduation, he said. (File)

The West Bengal government will not implement the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, for the time being as it has reservations against it and feels that “more discussions need to be held on the matter with all stakeholders”, state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said on Monday.

Chatterjee, who attended the ‘Governors’ Conference on the Role of NEP in Transforming Higher Education’, said NEP-2020 undermines the country’s federal structure and role of states.

He said, “We wonder why a rich language like Bengali has been excluded from the list of classical languages prescribed to be learnt by students of middle school. This needs to be rectified…”

The minister told the media after the meeting, “We have expressed our reservations about certain aspects of NEP in today’s meeting, as they undermine the country’s federal structure and the role of states. Right now, the focus should be on fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. There is no rush for NEP implementation.”

A copy of Chatterjee’s speech was shared with the media.

At the meeting, he said, “Such centralised policy in a vast and diversified country like ours, if implemented without flexibility with the state government, may not yield good results and may be regressive. It tries to dilute the federal structure of the country, which is guaranteed in our Constitution, by trying to prescribe almost everything centrally.”