Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar on Saturday said the Tamil Nadu government had only made several “observations” about the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in its official representation to the Union government, and did not say it was fully against the policy.
Addressing the media after attending the convocation of the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Sri City, Chittoor, he said the perception that the Tamil Nadu government was fully opposed to NEP 2020 was wrong.
Responding to Tamil Nadu government’s opposition to the policy, he said, “I am sorry to say that what you are saying is not written in the letter. Tamil Nadu government has given their observations. They have not written that they are against it,” he said.
He said the State government had highlighted its concerns and practical problems in many areas. Desisting from elaborating on all the points of contention raised by the Tamil Nadu government, he said they were related to early childhood care.
Terming some of the suggestions “practical problems”, the Minister said, “They have given some observations. They will also discuss, We will also discuss.”
Dr. Sarkar was non-committal when asked whether the Union government would consider making certain amendments to the policy or allow Tamil Nadu to do that based on the concerns it has raised. Pointing out that NEP 2020 was a broad framework to improve quality of higher education uniformly, he said the State had to form its own “Curriculum Framework” as per the policy, based on feedback at the district level. “Let it be developed first,” he said.
To a question on the need for implementing NEP 2020 when the State was already performing better in education, he said certain parameters like the literacy rate and gross enrolment ratio alone cannot be used to gauge the quality. He said other aspects like learning outcomes, research output and innovation should also be taken into consideration.
