State seeks amendments in policy after consultations

Until now the State government has neither opposed nor hailed the NEP. In fact, various political parties in the State including DMK have expressed their opposition to the NEP. However, a senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next on Saturday that State would seek certain amendments in both the sector and authorities are preparing a detailed report on the State’s apprehensions in NEP if any. Pointing out that State was already against conducting board exams for Class 3, Class 5 and Class 8, the official from the School Education Department said “the government will seek the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD), which came out with NEP, to cancel the exams for those standards”.

He said that the government will also ask Centre to give more powers to the State do decide on its own in various aspects such as in recruitment of teachers and preparing the syllabus among others. “Three-language proposal in NEP will also be discussed and government is very keen not to impose any particular language on students,” he added.

Echoing similar view on giving powers to the State, an official from the Higher Education Department also said the authorities, who were discussing NEP, were on the opinion that Centre should leave the State in conducting mandatory entrance exams for college and university admissions.

“Centre’s proposal in the NEP to allow foreign universities to set up their campus across the country and granting graded autonomy to colleges are also being discussed”, he said  adding “if that was the case, all those universities and colleges should come under the control of the State to avoid malpractices in the campus”. Stating that it is expected that NEP should also ensure timely allocation and disbursing funds to the State, the official said “the government is also of the opinion that under NEP, the fund allocation should be State specific”.

According to officials, detail recommendations will be submitted to the State government, which would officially get in touch with MHRD to make the possible amendments in NEP.