NEW DELHI: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday asked the Karnataka government to let politics take its own route after Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar decided to scrap the National Education Policy (NEP) in the state.
The minister, while addressing the media on Tuesday, raised a series of important questions against the deeply politicised scrapping of NEP in Karnataka by the Congress government, asking them not to play with the young generation’s future.
Union Education Minister Pradhan questioned the uncaring nature of the Karnataka government for the students, posing a series of questions to Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, saying, “Does he and the Congress party oppose early childhood care and education as a part of formal education? Does he not want our children to achieve foundational literacy and numeracy by the time they complete Grade 2?”
He further went on to ask, “Does he oppose education in Kannada and other Bharatiya Bhashas? Does he not want examinations like NEET, CUET, and JEE to be conducted in Bharatiya Bhasha, including Kannada, in a transparent manner?”
He further questioned D K Shivakumar about whether or not he wanted the youth of Karnataka to avail of world-class research facilities through the National Research Foundation. “Does he not want students to learn about new and emerging technologies in the 21st century? Does he not want new textbooks relevant for 21st century education?” he asked.
Pradhan also questioned Shivakumar whether he opposed opportunities for earning while learning. He concluded by saying that such preposterous statements on NEP may please Shivakumar’s political masters in Delhi, but they compromise the interests of students in Karnataka.
On Monday, after meeting with representatives of different educational institutions and officials in Bengaluru, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said that the state government will form a new education policy, and not implement the National Education Policy, 2020.
He further said that states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala had already scrapped the policy, adding that the Karnataka government will constitute a new committee to work on a new education policy for the state.
The National Education Policy was launched in July 2020 to provide a set of guiding principles for a paradigm shift across the education sector in India, from school to doctoral level. (ANI)