Pradhan Makes Fresh Attack Amid NEP Furore

Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday doubled down on his criticism of Tamil Nadu's DMK government for opposing and not implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

- Sanjay Maurya

NEW DELHI:

During the marathon seven-hour long discussion on education in the Rajya Sabha, Pradhan stated that multilingualism is the need of the hour. Highlighting the issues in Tamil Nadu, which follows the two-language formula, he said, "In Tamil Nadu, in 2018-19, the number of students in Tamil medium was 54% of the total, while English medium students were 45%. In 2023-24, these numbers were 36.3% in Tamil medium and 63.4% in English medium. What is your opposition to NEP, which advocates teaching students up to Class 5 in Tamil in Tamil Nadu?" he argued.

Before Pradhan's replies, opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha targeted the government over NEP provisions, disbursal of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) funds and fellowships for students, alleging that the policy is limiting the access to education for marginalized communities' students. They raised concerns over the closure of government schools, teacher vacancies and the functioning of the higher education regulator UGC.

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh initiated the discussion and said NEP has recommended the consolidation of primary schools into school complexes, which is resulting in closures of government schools and hence violating the Right To Education (RTE) Act, which mandates that a primary school should be available within a kilometre of a child's home.