NEP 2020: Tamil Nadu to continue two-language policy; state Education Minister informs Centre

Tamil Nadu government has informed the Education Ministry that it has successfully implemented the two-language policy and will continue the same in the future.

Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K P Anbalagan has written to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank regarding certain facets envisages in the newly proposed National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

"The state had successfully implemented the two-language policy and that the state government had already taken a decision to continue the same in the future," the Minister said. 

NEP 2020 targets a three-language policy, however in August, the Ministry of Education (earlier known as Human Resource Development Ministry) had tweeted that the three-language formula will continue to be implemented in schools “with greater flexibility” but that “no language will be imposed on any state”.

NEP 2020 also called for an increased focus on regional languages of India and mother tongue as the medium on instruction for students up to class 5.

The Minister further said that while NEP 2020 aims to achieve a 50 per cent Gross Enrollment Ratio by 2035, Tamil Nadu had already achieved 49 per cent GER. The minister said that by 2035, the state's GER would be 65 per cent.

In the letter to Pokhriyal, Anbalagan stated that while the teacher-student ratio across India was 1:26, in Tamil Nadu, it was 1:17.
The Tamil Nadu higher education minister also claimed that the proposal in NEP for National Testing Agency to conduct a common entrance exam will discourage rural students and so the state government didn’t support this proposal.

Union Cabinet had introduced the ‘New National Education Policy’ in July replacing the 34-year-old National Policy on Education framed in 1986.

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