No State Has Opposed The New Education Policy 2020, Says Centre

Dr Subhas Sarkar has said that state governments have presented their views and observations on the NEP 2020 to the centre.

Union Minister of State For Education Dr Subhash Sarkar ( Image Source :facebook.com/drsubhassarkar )

Union Minister of State for Education, Dr. Subhas Sarkar has said that no state government has opposed the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and instead, they have presented their respective observations on the NEP 2020 to the centre. The minister made the remarks while talking to the media in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai today, where he inaugurated new infrastructural facilities at the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR). "No State government has opposed the New Education Policy 2020. They have put forward their observations on it before the centre," Subhas Sarkar was reported as saying by news agency ANI. 

Notably, the Union government launched the National Education Policy 2020 in July 2020 in a bid to revamp the complete education system in the country, ranging from elementary to higher education. However, three years after its launch, the NEP 2020 still finds itself struggling for implementation across the country, courtesy of some state governments like Karnataka, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu, who have objected to the education policy. 

While the NEP 2020 does not necessitate states to accept it, states are free to accept or reject the policy. Earlier in August this year, Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan also introduced a revised draft of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE). Notably, the NEP 2020 and the NCF-SE would together serve as a guiding document for framing the syllabus and designing school textbooks published by the NCERT (National Council For Educational Research and Training) for Class 3 to Class 12. 

While the BJP ruled states have gradually started rolling down the NEP 2020 in their respective educational institutions, some non-BJP states have voiced against the policy. Earlier in August, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that the state government would repeal the NEP 2020 completely from the next academic year, making it the first state to do so. Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said that the state government will come up with its own ‘Karnataka Education Policy’ next year. 

While the Tamil Nadu government has already expressed its disapproval of the NEP, the West Bengal government has already come up with its own West Bengal State Education Policy 2023. Even the Kerala government has recently released supplementary school textbooks which cover the portions and chapters that were deleted from NCERT textbooks following the ‘Syllabus Revision; by the NCERT.