NEP Not Passed in Parliament, States Not Taken into Confidence, Says WB Education Minister

Hitting out at the Centre for the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, a senior minister of the Mamata Banerjee government has said it was formulated without being passed in Parliament and the states were not taken into confidence.

Though education is in the concurrent list, the contents of the new policy had not been discussed with the state governments before it was passed by the union cabinet on July 29, West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said on Friday.

The Congress and the Left parties had on July 30 criticised the BJP-led government at the Centre for “bypassing” the Parliament on NEP. DMK president M K Stalin on Saturday stepped up attack against the policy saying it was an attempt at “imposition” of Hindi and Sanskrit and vowed to fight against it by joining hands with like-minded political parties and chief ministers of other states.

Chatterjee, who was speaking to newsmen on Friday night, claimed that the NEP, 2020 is a “copy paste of the western model”.

“I wonder how come they (Centre) thought of enforcing it without any discussion in Parliament and with the state government. This is unilateral,” said Chatterjee, who is also the TMC secretary general.

Banerjee, who is the TMC supremo, is among the foremost critics of the BJP.

The West Bengal government has “listed 10-12 points of the NEP which we will point out in a letter to be sent to the Centre very soon,” the minister said but did not elaborate.

Reacting to Chatterjee’s comments, West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh said those who have destroyed the state’s education system have no right to criticise others.

“It is an irony that the state government which does not have any education policy are opposing the central government’s education policy. The education system has completely broken down in Bengal, ” Ghosh said.

The union cabinet had on July 29 approved the National Education Policy 2020 replacing the 34-year old National Policy on Education, 1986.

The highlights of the draft policy are all students will take school examinations in grades 3, 5 and 8, which will be conducted by the appropriate authority. Board exams for Grades 10 and 12 will be continued, but redesigned.

It also advocated “broad-based, multi-disciplinary, holistic under graduate education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entries and exit points with appropriate certification”.

The new policy received clearance from the cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after six years of consultations. It will replace the previous system that was announced in 1986 and modified in 1992.