Chennai: The Tamilnadu government has reiterated that it would continue with the two-language policy in the state and would not follow the three-language formula as envisaged in the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 and said the state would achieve an ambitious target of 65 per cent GER by 2035.
In a letter to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, copies of which were released to the media here, Higher Education Minister K P Anbalagan said ‘the State of Tamilnadu has always followed ‘two-language policy’, which has been a success.
“The Tamilnadu government has already taken a decision to continue with the ‘2-language policy’ in future also”, he added.
Noting that Tamilnadu’s Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) as per the recent All India Survey of Higher Education was 49 per cent, the Minister said, “we are hopeful that we will achieve the target of 50 per cent in the 2019-20 academic year itself.”
He said the state government has taken various measures by opening new colleges, introduced new courses and increasing the capacity of colleges by recruiting teachers, creating labs and other facilities and would continue to do the same.
“By 2035, Tamil Nadu can achieve an ambitious target of 65 per cent GER”, he said and pointed out that the NEP-2020 envisages to achieve the target of 50 per cent GER by 2035.
Anbalagan also opposed the proposal in NEP-2020 to conduct entrance exams by the National Testing Agency, saying this move would discourage rural students.
“The Tamilnadu government is not for such proposal as it will be an added burden on the students”, he added.
Referring to Sec.10 of NEP suggesting institutional re-structuring and consolidation and Sec 10.3 that either a college should be an autonomous degree awarding college or constituent college of the University, he said the strategy of categorizing colleges only as autonomous or constituent colleges would deprive affiliated colleges the capacity or the capability of becoming autonomous degree granting colleges as they would lakck sutiable guidance from the affiliated Universities.
Pointing out that only 53 of the 587 colleges in the State were autonomous colleges, he said all the other colleges were required to be nurtured suitably by the affiliated Universities and then improve their quality standards. “Hence the present model of Tamil Nadu may be allowed to continue,” he added.
While welcoming the move to convert the B.Ed programme into a four-year integrated degress course including two major subjects, he said it would enable the students to complete the degree early and enter into the teaching profession quickly. “This will help a lot of students who have opted for the core studies”, he said.