Proposed education policy hits language barrier

Chennai: Political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the DMK, on Saturday strongly opposed the three-language formula’s continuation with add-on features proposed in the draft National Education Policy (NEP) alleging it was tantamount to “thrusting” Hindi and wanted it junked.

In a major move, the NEP aims to eradicate the present system of universities affiliating colleges/ Universities and the autonomous colleges would be capable of awarding degrees on their own.

It also proposed to discontinue MPhil courses and to revamp the undergraduate courses to four years instead of three. This is a part of the proposal to introduce a 5+3+3+4 structure of education against the 10+2 that is currently prevalent. The first five years would last till Class 2, to be followed by three preparatory years,  three years of middle school and four years of secondary education.

It proposes easing the pressure of the Class 10 and Class 12 exams by proposing subject-wise assessments.

Warning the Central government against attempts to “impose” Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states, Tamil leaders denounced the Kasturirangan committee’s draft NEP recommending implementation of a uniform three-language policy throughout the country that would entail teaching Hindi from pre-school upwards as “highly divisive and ahistorical”. Twitter was also flooded with messages protesting the draft education policy submitted to the new government at the Centre on Friday.

 #StopHindiImposition, #TNAgainstHindiImposition trended throughout the day on the microblogging site.

The committee’s report is “truly shocking”, a dangerous bid to belittle other classical Indian languages like Tamil in the guise of “teaching Sanskrit the easy way”, said DMK president M.K. Stalin.