MADURAI: A strong appeal has been made to the Tamil Nadu government from Madurai today urging it not to surrender its rights and space to the diktats of Modi government at the Centre in the field of education starting from schools to universities.
“Education is now in concurrent list. The Stalin government should resist the Union government’s entry through pushing of National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) and giving orders from University Grants Commission. I am afraid that the central government will try to take education into the union list if we keep dancing to its tunes because the BJP government’s intentions are becoming clear in education matters,” Mr.P.B.Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary, State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN), has alerted the State government today.
He was addressing a seminar in Madurai on June 10th 2023 on the topic “State Education Policy: A way forward to save education, democracy and freedom’, which was organized by SOCO Trust (Society for Community Organization Trust-Madurai), Justice Shivaraj V.Patil Foundation-Madurai and SPCSS-TN.
Mr.Gajendra Babu took a strong exception to the circular recently issued to all universities in the State by Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE).
“See, the Tamil Nadu government has formed a committee to formulate a distinct State Education Policy and that process is now going on. When this happening, there are plenty of NEP pressures, UGC guidelines and what is shocking is the proposal to have common syllabus for all 13 State universities in Tamil Nadu. The UGC sends some circulars, and our TANSCHE forwards it to universities. When you have common syllabus for all universities, then where is the freedom and autonomy for a university to decide on academic matters? Universities cannot perform their duties independently. There is no point having an academic council, Board of Studies, Senate and Syndicate in universities. So, we must oppose the common syllabus proposal mooted by TANSCHE,” Mr.Prince Gajendra Babu has said in Madurai today and added that universities should enjoy certain powers and freedom.
He also stressed while speaking to reporters that the Stalin government is duty bound to reject the National Education Policy 2020 and come out with an exclusive distinct State Education Policy for Tamil Nadu that ensures access, equity, equality and democracy in education matters, that caters to all segments of the people.
Mr.A.T.Senthamarai Kannan, president of MUTA, advocate S.Selva Gomathi, managing trustee, Justice Shivraj V.Patil Foundation, Prof.P.Vijayakumar, secretary, Indian School of Social Sciences-Madurai and advocate Mr.A.Mahaboob Batcha, Managing Trustee of SOCO Trust, were among those who spoke on the objectives of conducting a seminar in Madurai today in the backdrop of State Education Policy to save democracy and freedom.
