CHENNAI: VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan issued a clarion call to democratic forces to raise their voices against the BJP government's National Education Policy (NEP), which, he claimed, is designed to increase school dropout rates and push students back into kula thozhil (traditional or family vocations), a practice of ‘graded inequality’ which is entrenched in caste-order based varna system.
The objective of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and the NEP policymakers is to filter students out at the lower levels and send them home (from schools), thereby increasing the dropout rate and forcing them back into kula thozhil, Thiruma told reporters at Chennai airport on Friday.
He stated that CBSE students are facing a slew of new challenges due to the implementation of the NEP, which proposes five public examinations from Class V to Class XII. According to the policy, only students who secure a certain percentage of marks will be permitted to progress from Standard V to VI, and from Standard VIII to IX. "We are strongly opposing NEP from the very beginning," he said
Referring to the Centre's recent statement on the NEP, he said it clearly illustrates why the Tamil Nadu government opposes the policy. "As the Tamil Nadu government is opposing such a regressive policy, which contradicts its 'all-pass' approach, the Centre is denying financial assistance to educational schemes," Thiruma added.
He expressed shock over the withdrawal of security cover for former IAS officer U Sagayam, who has been reportedly facing life threats for probing the multi-crore granite mining scam. He urged the Tamil Nadu government to restore the security cover for the retired bureaucrat.