Page 22 - EW February 2023

Education News

Self Respect Movement founded by Periyar E.V. Ra- THEY SAID IT
masamy Naicker and the Justice Party which appre-
hended “Hindi imperialism”. In 1965, when Hindi was
approved by Parliament as the national language, violent "Like in cricket, a batter focuses on the ball
riots broke out in Tamil Nadu. Shortly thereafter, the Con- thrown to him ignoring shouts for fours
gress government in Delhi declared English as the associ- and sixes from the crowd, students should
ate national language and language of the upper judiciary also concentrate on their work. Do not be
and Centre-state and inter-state communication. But with suppressed by pressures. Stay focused."
NEP 2020 reiterating the three language formula — which Prime minister Narendra Modi’s advice to students
makes Hindi learning compulsory for all school children at his annual 'thoughts on examination' interactive
— old antagonism has been revived. session (January 27)
“After having several rounds of meetings with stake-
holders including teachers and experts in the field of edu- “The President doesn’t contest elections, but
cation, and holding public hearings we are almost ready it looks like the BJP government is conduct-
with the SEP draft. It will be uploaded on the state govern- ing its next election campaign through her.
ment website by April for public feedback before the final
policy is unveiled,” says former director of matriculation The entire speech was an election speech
schools A. Karuppaswamy, member-secretary of the trying to praise the government for every-
Murugesan Committee. thing it has done and skipping all those bits it
Even as a battle royale is likely in the Supreme Court has not done so well."
to ascertain whether Tamil Nadu’s SEP 2023 will be Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on President Draupadi
adjudged “repugnant” to NEP 2020 and that the latter Murmu’s speech to Parliament on the inauguration of
should prevail, academics fear that the future of 12.7 mil- the Budget session (The Tribune, January 31)
lion children enrolled in Tamil Nadu’s 52,300 govern-
ment, government-aided “The issue is not just about protecting some
and matriculation schools 'doles' for the poor but on what our vision for
may be jeopardised by the Amrit Kaal is — it surely can't be one where
Centre-state NEP-SEP
row. half the population has to struggle with
Currently, there are access to education, health, nutrition and
“schools that teach three social security.”
languages and even for- Dipa Sinha, professor of economics, Dr. B.R.
eign languages like Japa- Ambedkar University, Delhi on the Union Budget
nese. Fifteen years ago, 2023-24 short-changing the social sector again (The
a DMK government had Hindu, February 2)
decreed that Tamil should John Arokia Prabhu
be the sole language of “Only a slavish, colonial mentality can
instruction in all schools suggest that we turn our Indian institutions
statewide. But that proposal drew a storm of protest into second class ‘citizens’ by promising
and had to be dropped. This time round the Murugesan all kinds of autonomy — operational and
Committee would be well-advised to reiterate a Supreme academic — only to foreign universities. This
Court judgement of 2014 which ruled that parents have is not the way to establish ‘Make in India’
the right to choose the medium of instruction for their
children,” says advocate M.J. John Arokia Prabhu, institutions.”
vice president of Tamil Nadu Private Schools Association, Anurag Mehra, professor of chemical engineering,
who also heads the legal team of the Delhi-based National IIT-Bombay on new UGC norms allowing foreign
universities to set up campuses in India (NDTV,
Independent Schools Alliance (NISA). February 3)
With Central government ministers repeatedly de-
manding that Hindi — the language of the majority of
citizens — should be declared the national language, and “Asked to assess his performance as prime
all political parties in Tamil Nadu averse to this proposal minister, as many as 72 percent of the re-
arousing sub-nationalist sentiments in the state, the apex spondents rated it as outstanding to good...”
court’s Solomon-like judgement empowering parents to Raj Chengappa, group editorial director, on the results
make language learning choices is the best solution. of a recent poll assessing PM Narendra Modi's
Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) popularity (India Today, February 6)

22 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2023