TN skips Union education minister’s meeting on NEP, board exams

Chennai: Tamil Nadu school education department officials on Monday skipped a virtual meeting called by Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal with department secretaries of all states to discuss a range of issues, including implementation of New Education Policy (NEP), 2000

Published on: May 18, 2021, 24:41:11 IST

By Divya Chandrababu

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Chennai: Tamil Nadu school education department officials on Monday skipped a virtual meeting called by Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal with department secretaries of all states to discuss a range of issues, including implementation of New Education Policy (NEP), 2000. According to people aware of the development, this was state’s way of registering its protest against the minister’s decision to interact only with officials and not state ministers.

Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi had a day ago emailed the Centre asking for him to be included in the meeting. “I had discussed this with the chief minister (MK Stalin) and he said that since this is a newly elected government we should have a direct interaction,” Poyyamozhi told reporters in Trichy on Monday.

“We didn’t boycott, and this isn’t political. But we want to be able to participate and put forth our views. Since we didn’t receive any response, the state did not attend,” he added.

There were three main agendas to be discussed in the meeting - implementation of the NEP, online classes during Covid-19, and possibility of conducting Class 12 board exams during the ongoing crisis.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had opposed the NEP and promised a state-level education policy in its election manifesto. Poyyamozhi said in the NEP they were particularly against conducting board exams for classes 3, 5 and 8 and the three-language policy, which he said, needed to be discussed at length. “Many of our suggestions that we put forth in the draft stage of NEP were not taken into consideration,” Poyyamozhi said, adding that he would convey Tamil Nadu’s views to the Centre once they receive a response.

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