NEP doesn’t impose any language, Tamil Nadu shouldn’t portray it as threat: Union education minister

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday told Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin that it was inappropriate for his state to view the 2020 National Education Policy with a “myopic vision” and spin such reforms into threats to sustain their political narratives.

In a letter to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief, Pradhan said that the National Education Policy did not advocate for the imposition of any language and that several states without Bharatiya Janata Party governments had also implemented it despite political differences.

This came a day after Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention in getting dues of Rs 2,152 crore released to the Tamil Nadu under the Samagra Shiksha scheme without linking them to the implementation of the National Education Policy.

Samagra Shiksha, implemented in 2018, is the scheme through which the Centre provides support for elementary and secondary school education.

Stalin also accused the Centre of withholding funds as a tactic to coerce states to adopt centrally-mandated programmes. He said that the state had a two-language policy, which entailed teaching students English and Tamil.

Political parties in Tamil Nadu have long opposed attempts to impose Hindi as a third language.

Stalin was responding to earlier remarks made by Pradhan suggesting that funds under Samagra Shiksha for Tamil Nadu would not be…

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