Bengal, Tamil Nadu yet to inform about NEP implementation status: Centre in LS
Since education is part of the concurrent list in the seventh schedule of the Constitution, junior education minister Annpurna Devi said implementing the policy was primarily the domain of the state governments.
West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are yet to update the central government on the status of implementation of the National Education Policy 2020, the education ministry told Parliament on Monday, adding that all other states have started the process.
“The states of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are yet to inform (us of) the status of implementation of NEP 2020. Remaining all states and UTs (union territories) have initiated actions on NEP implementation,” junior education minister Annpurna Devi said in a written response to a question by Trinamool Congress MP Dibyendu Adhikari in the Lok Sabha.
Since education is part of the concurrent list in the seventh schedule of the Constitution, Devi said implementing the policy was primarily the domain of the state governments.
“Therefore, the implementation of the policy requires multiple initiatives and actions, which are being taken up in a synchronised and systematic manner, by multiple bodies including ministry of education, CABE (Central Advisory Board of Education), state/UT governments, education-related ministries, state departments of education, boards, NTA (National Testing Agency), the regulatory bodies of school and higher education, NCERT, SCERTs, schools and HEIs,” the minister added.
The central government notified the new education policy in July 2020 and asked the states to start implementing it. The states have also been asked to prepare their curriculum frameworks after which a new national curriculum will be prepared.
HT tried to reach out to Bratya Basu, West Bengal’s education minister, and Manish Jain, the state education secretary, for a comment but did not get one immediately.
In April this year, the Mamata Banerjee administration constituted a 10-member committee to examine NEP and assess the need for a state-level policy on education, officials said.
In July, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the Centre was working with the West Bengal government to implement NEP in the state and that talks were being held to iron out issues.
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin has previously said NEP will not be implemented in the state, which will, instead, effect a state education policy or SEP which is in the works. The state’s primary opposition to the policy is on account of the three-language policy.
Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi and department secretary Kakarla Usha also did not respond to HT’s calls for a comment on the matter.
Earlier in April, Tamil Nadu had formed a 13-member panel, led by D Murugesan, former Chief Justice of Delhi high court, to frame a state education policy.