SEP is nothing but Sonia Gandhi Education Policy: Ex-Karnataka CM Bommai

“If NEP is Nagpur Education Policy according to Congress then SEP is Sonia Gandhi Education Policy. Sonia Gandhi means Italy which further means the European style of Macaulay education system. The Congress is bringing back an education system that actually reverses the purpose of NEP which is to destroy the colonial mindset,” said Bommai.

He also challenged the Congress ministers owning education institutions affiliated with CBSE and ICSE boards to scrap NEP and introduce state syllabus in their schools.

The convention was attended by BJP leaders and former education ministers including CT Ravi, BC Nagesh, CN Ashwathnarayan, Vishveshwar Kageri, Bhaskar Rao among others. The BJP is also planning to kickstart a door-to-door campaign at the district and taluk levels to create awareness on NEP and debunk the misconceptions about the policy. The convention also hosted academicians and former vice-chancellors of state universities to shed light on the advantages of NEP.

Prof B Thimmegowda, former vice-chairman of the Karnataka Higher Education Council said, “Changing education policy soon after changing government is detrimental to students. The policy has its own merits and demerits which can be discussed and debated. But outright scrapping of the policy will prove to be costly for the education framework. It’s not that other states are not implementing NEP.

Some states are waiting for the Centre to come up with the National Curriculum Framework. Meanwhile, Kerala has its own policy which is 95 per cent similar to NEP.” He added, “NEP also talks about curbing commercialization of education and the provision of multiple exit and multiple entry will surely be a gamechanger, especially for girls who wants to opt out due to various personal reasons and can once again come back to finish the course.”

Anurag Behar, vice chancellor of Azim Premier University and one of the drafting committee members for NEP, said “The policy is a comprehensive document that emphasizes on equitable education FROM LKG to PhD. We received over 2.5 lakh feedback from the common public when the draft policy was out in public. The final policy was produced only after taking into account all the feedback coupled with consultations with principals across the country. NEP has a horizon of at least 20 years and directly confronts some of the most fundamental challenges in Indian Education in a very realistic manner.”

On Monday, the state government had given an in-principle nod to form a committee within a week to work out the SEP for the next academic year. In a high-level meeting chaired by chief minister Siddaramaiah with writer and novelist Baraguru Ramachandrappa, school education minister Madhu Bangarappa, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, Sudhakar, and officials of the school and higher education department, it was decided to not disturb the current existing education policy framework and allow the National Education Policy (NEP) batch students to finish third year which will culminate in 2024.