CUDDALORE: Chief minister M K Stalin on Saturday said he will never sign the National Education Policy (NEP) even if the Union govt offers Rs 2,000 crore or Rs 10,000 crore.
Addressing the representatives of the Tamil Nadu parents-teachers association at the association’s zonal conference at Veppur in Cuddalore district, Stalin said if the state signed away its rights for Rs 2,000 crore, the Tamil society would be set back by 2,000 years. “Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin will never commit such a sin,” he said.
He said, “The NEP is a policy that undermines social justice, attacks the Tamil language, and is against the interests of Tamil people and Tamil Nadu.”
“NEP is a direct threat to the future of our children. We are not against any language. But if anyone tries to impose a language on us, we will always resist it! We are firm on that. We do not oppose NEP just because it promotes Hindi. We oppose it because it is a policy that pushes students out of schools,” he said.
He said the govt considered education and healthcare as its two eyes. “This year alone, Rs 44,000 crore was allocated to the school education department, and ₹8,200 crore to the higher education department. From this, you can clearly understand how much importance we give to the education sector. That is why Tamil Nadu ranks second in India in providing quality education. The reason for this achievement is the various schemes implemented by the school education department. This has also been recognized in the Economic Survey released by the Union finance department,” he said.
He said the Union govt acknowledged Tamil Nadu’s achievement in its reports. “The Economic Survey report of the Union govt has openly praised Tamil Nadu’s quality of education. But while they praise us on one side, they refuse to grant the funds to Tamil Nadu on the other side. The Union govt has withheld Rs 2,152 crore, which should have been given to Tamil Nadu. This amount is meant for the welfare of 43 lakh school children. They are refusing to provide the funds that rightfully belong to Tamil Nadu, just because we did not accept the NEP,” he said.
Listing out the impacts of the NEP, he said the policy weakened the social justice policies. “It denies scholarships that are currently being provided to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. It introduces public exams in Classes III, V, and VIII to filter out students. It proposes semester exams from Class IX to XII, making it similar to a national-level entrance exam. Students will no longer be able to directly join the college of their choice after Class XII. Just like the Neet for medical admissions, entrance exams will be introduced for engineering and arts colleges, conducted by a national-level agency, not the college-level,” he said.
“The policy allows students, who do not want to continue their studies after Class X, to drop out. Isn’t this the same as forcing them out of education?” he questioned.
He said the policy introduced a caste-based vocational education system from Class VI. Instead of allowing students to study and progress, they were being pushed back into hereditary professions, as per the unfair principles of Manusmriti, he charged.
“We are not enemies of any language, including Hindi. If anyone wishes to learn Hindi, they are free to do so at Hindi Prachar Sabha, Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), or other institutions. Tamil Nadu has never stopped anyone from learning Hindi, nor will we ever do so. But do not try to impose Hindi on us. If you do, Tamil people will resist, and Tamil Nadu will prove its strength!,” he said.
He said the success of Tamil Nadu was its two-language policy. He pointed out that Tamil Nadu’s students had excelled because of the two-language policy. “Tamil people across the world have proven this with their achievements,” he said.
He said the Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan questioned why Tamil Nadu was the only state refusing to accept the NEP when all other states had accepted it. “Let me tell him (Pradhan) —this is Tamil Nadu, the land of the classical Tamil language. We cherish Tamil more than our lives! No dominant language can ever erase our identity, and we will never allow it!” he said.
Stalin said the Dravidian movement had been fighting to protect Tamil for 85 years. “In the last 75 years, 52 languages in India have disappeared, and in the Hindi belt alone, 25 languages have gone extinct! States that lost their native languages to Hindi dominance are only now realizing the truth,” he said.
Tamil Nadu protected its mother tongue Tamil, and this was why other Indian states were now looking to TN’s language policy as an example, he said.
“When we ask for funds, the Union education minister claims that the Prime Minister cares for Tamil. But what has this so-called care done for Tamil? Here is a small sample of their discrimination—listen carefully! The Union govt has allocated Rs 1,488 crore for Sanskrit, a language spoken by only a few thousand people in India. For Tamil, spoken by eight crore people, they have allocated only Rs 74 crore! Is this how you claim to develop Tamil?” he said.
He promised that even if the Union govt denied funds for Tamil Nadu’s school education, the state would not stop any of the initiatives under the integrated school education scheme.