Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said that the two-language policy will continue to be followed in schools in the state. He added that the emphasis on three-language policy in the recently released National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is disappointing.
In a statement released on Monday, the Chief Minister elaborated Tamil Nadu’s journey with the two-language policy and the various strong steps taken by the previous governments and Chief Ministers to remain firm in deciding to follow the policy. He said that in 1965, when the then-Congress government at the Centre attempted to change the official communication language to Hindi, intense protests broke out across Tamil Nadu opposing this move. He also pointed out that then Chief Minister CN Annadurai had passed a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1968 to follow only the two-language policy in schools, thus teaching only English and Tamil. He added that Chief Ministers MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa had opposed the imposition of Hindi in Tamil Nadu over the years.
“The current government which follows the footsteps of these great leaders had strongly opposed the three-language policy when the draft of the National Education Policy was released. Moreover, as far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, I had also written to the Prime Minister on 26.6.2019 saying that we will follow only two-language policy in the state,” Edappadi Palaniswami pointed out. He also said that this was reiterated in his Independence Day speech of 2019 and also in various debates on the floor of the Legislative Assembly since then.
“Though the three-language policy has been mentioned in the National Education Policy 2020, this government running in the name of Honourable Amma will never allow three-language policy in Tamil Nadu and will continue to follow the two-language policy in education,” Chief Minister Palaniswami added. He stated that it is disappointing that the central government would bring in the three-language policy in the National Education Policy while the people of Tamil Nadu and most political parties including the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) want to follow only the two-language policy.
He also requested the Prime Minister to reconsider the three-language policy mentioned in the National Education Policy and allow the states to implement it based on their decisions.
The National Education Policy 2020, which was recently released, emphasised on educational institutions implementing a three-language formula. “The three-language formula will continue to be implemented while keeping in mind the Constitutional provisions, aspirations of the people, regions, and the Union, and the need to promote multilingualism as well as promote national unity. However, there will be a greater flexibility in the three-language formula, and no language will be imposed on any State. The three languages learned by children will be the choices of States, regions, and of course the students themselves, so long as at least two of the three languages are native to India,” the policy stated.
The draft NEP had created an uproar in southern states in 2019 for making Hindi compulsory in non-Hindi speaking states. After many citizens and politicians across the country, especially in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, slammed the policy for trying to homogenise a country which is linguistically diverse, it was revised.