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The long-standing conflict between Tamil Nadu and the central government over the devolution of funds has now escalated into a disagreement over education and language policies. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s remarks on Saturday indicated that Tamil Nadu would not receive funding under the Samagra Shiksha program until it adopts the National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020 and implements its three-language policy. This statement has sparked significant protest against NEP in the state.
1. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan alleged that the DMK government’s refusal to accept the NEP 2020 and three-language formula was “politically-motivated”, saying “they cannot think they are above the Constitution”.
2. Linking the Samagra Shiksha funds with the adoption of the NEP and the three-language policy, Stalin argued, was a “fundamentally unacceptable” approach.
3. Notably, Tamil Nadu’s resistance to the three-language formula is not new. The state, since the 1960s, has consistently upheld its two-language policy of Tamil and English, resisting impositions of Hindi as a third language. The Navodaya Vidyalayas, a network of central schools implementing the three-language policy, have not been established in Tamil Nadu due to widespread opposition.
1. An NEP is a comprehensive framework to guide the development of education in the country. The need for a policy was first felt in 1964 when Congress MP Siddheshwar Prasad criticised the then government for lacking a vision and philosophy for education. The same year, a 17-member Education Commission, headed by then UGC Chairperson D S Kothari, was constituted to draft a national and coordinated policy on education. Based on the suggestions of this Commission, Parliament passed the first education policy in 1968.
2. The National Education Policy, 2020 is the third national education policy of the country. The first came in 1968 and the second in 1986, under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi respectively; the NEP of 1986 was revised in 1992 when P V Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister. The third NEP is released under the Prime Ministership of Narendra Modi.
3. The NEP only provides a broad direction and is not mandatory to follow. Since education is a concurrent subject (both the Centre and the state governments can make laws on it). The incumbent government has set a target of 2040 to implement the entire policy.
Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan |
| Launched in 2018, the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan is a Centrally Sponsored integrated scheme for school education that subsumed the schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE). |
The three-language formula, dating back to 1968, means students in Hindi-speaking states should learn a modern Indian language, apart from Hindi and English and, in non-Hindi-speaking states, Hindi along with the regional language and English.
1. The 2011 linguistic census accounts for 121 mother tongues, including 22 languages listed in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India. Hindi is the most widely spoken, with 52.8 crore individuals, or 43.6% of the population, declaring it as their mother tongue. The next highest is Bengali, mother tongue for 9.7 crores (8%).
2. In terms of the number of people who know Hindi, the count crosses more than half the country. Nearly 13.9 crore (over 11%) reported Hindi as their second language, which makes it either the mother tongue or second language for nearly 55% of the population.
1. Every year September 14 is observed as Hindi Diwas, or Hindi Day. It commemorates the Constituent Assembly of India making Hindi the official language of the Union government (while English was to hold the status of associate language for 15 years).
2. The Constituent Assembly chose Hindi as the official language of the country after extensive discussions over three days. (Note: Hindi was chosen not as the national language.)
3. Discussions were over what script should the Union adopt, what script should the numerals be in, and what should be the status of English. Hindustani (Hindi with more Urdu elements) and Sanskrit were among those proposed as official languages.
4. The Munshi-Ayyangar formula was adopted as a solution. It was named after Drafting Committee members K M Munshi and N Gopalaswamy Ayyangar. As part of the Munshi-Ayyangar formula, Article 343 of the Constitution as adopted in 1950 said:
(a) “The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.”
(b) “The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals.”
(c) “…for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement.”
5. When the 15-year period came to an end, protests broke out over the fear of imposition of Hindi in large parts of non-Hindi-speaking India, particularly in Tamil Nadu. The resistance resulted in the Centre passing the Official Languages Act. This Act stated that English would continue to be upheld as an official language along with Hindi.
(References: Union govt using fund releases as pressure tactic to coerce states: Tamil Nadu CM amid NEP row, Knowledge nugget of the day: The Munshi-Ayyangar formula and Hindi Diwas, India’s National Education Policy, 2020)
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