MK Stalin alleges centre refusing funds to states opposing NEP; Dharmendra Pradhan hits back

NEW DELHI: In yet another tussle between states and union government over the National Education Policy (NEP), Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan accused MK Stalin of pitting states against each other while asking the Tamil Nadu chief minister to prioritise students’ interest over politics and implement NEP. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader made the remarks after Stalin slammed Centre for denying school education funds allegedly to opposition-ruled states, including TN, for refusing to accept the new education policy.

Pradhan asked if the DMK leader was opposing education in Tamil. “Healthy competition amongst the states is always welcome in a democracy. However, pitting states against each other to make a point, goes against the spirit of the Constitution and the value of a unified India. NEP 2020 was formulated through a wide range of consultations and has the collective wisdom of the people of India,” he said in a post on X.

Raising questions on TN’s “principled” opposition to NEP, the education minister asked if Stalin doesn’t want education in mother tongue, conduct of exams, creation of books and content in Indian languages including Tamil.

Samagra Shiksha Scheme, NEP: States vs centre

Notably, Stalin, who has been standing against NEP time and again, made the allegations based on a media report on centre withholding funds of Samagra Shiksha Scheme (SSA) to at least five states run by opposition parties. The report claims the five states – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab, West Bengal, and Delhi – which have been denied school education funds over the years are the ones at the top when it comes to delivering results. Besides fund crunch, there has been a delay in salary of teachers in these states, according to the report.

“Denying funds to the best-performing states for refusing to bow to the NEP, while generously rewarding those who are not delivering on the objectives – Is this how the Union BJP Government plans to promote quality education and equity?,” asked the TN CM earlier today.

The data shows Tamil Nadu has achieved all but one SSA objectives while Kerala has given the best performance by accomplishing every objective of the scheme including bridging of social and gender gaps, inclusivity, promotion of vocational education, teacher training, among others. The other three also figure in the top half of the list, the data revealed. Whereas the states such as Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, some of the first ones to bring about the policy change, have performed relatively low.

However, the central government apparently seems to prefer implementation of new policy and schemes over the performance differences between these states, the data suggests.