Justice D. Murugesan, the retired judge heading the high-level committee tasked with the formulation of the Tamil Nadu State Education Policy (SEP), has denied certain serious allegations levelled by Prof. L. Jawahar Nesan, who quit as a member of the committee on Wednesday.
In a statement issued to the media on Thursday, Justice Murugesan said the SEP was not being formulated on the lines of the National Education Policy 2020. Such an allegation was “baseless, incorrect, and malicious”, he said, denying that the committee was functioning in an undemocratic manner.
Mr. Nesan had alleged interferences from a few bureaucrats in the functioning of the committee, which, according to him, was leading to the creation a policy similar to that of NEP 2020, “driven by the interests of the corporate and market forces, the interests of the sanatanic forces, and the privatisation and commercialisation of education”.
Justice Murugesan said neither the committee nor he authorised Mr. Nesan to act as the convenor of the committee, as claimed by the latter. Mr. Nesan was the convenor of only the sub-committees formed under him. Highlighting that a deadline of March 2023 was set for submitting inputs from the sub-committees, he said Mr. Nesan sought an extension till July and it was accepted by the committee.
Meanwhile, meetings were scheduled to discuss inputs received from other members, but Mr. Nesan wanted such “final deliberations” be postponed. The committee clarified to Mr. Nesan that it was only a “preliminary” deliberation. Mr. Nesan later submitted a document titled “Initial policy inputs,” which was slotted for discussion on Thursday, by when he had resigned, the statement said.
Justice Murugesan denied the allegation that government officials were interfering with the functioning of the committee. Pointing out the work done by the committee so far, he said it was moving steadily with clarity of thought. He wanted to assure the people of Tamil Nadu that the formulation of SEP continued to be independent, collaborative and comprehensive.
Addressing the media earlier on Thursday, Mr. Nesan reiterated his allegation that a few bureaucrats were trying to control the way the committee was functioning and thereby indirectly influence the development of SEP similar to that of NEP. He stood by his allegation that T. Udhayachandran, Secretary I to the Chief Minister, spoke to him in a derogatory manner to make him toe the line.
