NEP Not Backed By Statute, State Not Obligated To Implement It: TN Govt Tells Madras High Court

The Tamil Nadu government has told the Madras High Court that the National Education Policy does not have any statutory backing and hence, there is no statutory obligation on the state to implement the same.

The development comes in a counter affidavit filed by the Joint Secretary to Government, Higher Education Department in response to a plea filed by one Arjunan Elayaraja seeking implementation of NEP in Tamil Nadu.

As per State, the proposed NEP 2020 had strong centralising tendencies which could have a destabilizing effect on the federal characteristics of the Indian Union. It also said that a bare reading of the NEP would make it clear that it did not have any statutory backing and remained only as a policy as on date. As such, there was no statutory obligation on the state to implement the same and for this very reason the petition is liable to be dismissed as not maintainable.

It is also submitted that Tamil Nadu already has well structured mechanisms for ensuring implementation of schemes and development activities, it already has the highest Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in the country (at 51.4) and double the national average of 27.1, which is one of the main aim sought to be achieved by the NEP. Thus, insisting a state which has shown results much more than the expected results of the NEP would be cruel and disadvantageous to the people of Tamil Nadu.

The state further submitted that certain aspects of the NEP like multiple exit options during degree programmes, external evaluation etc. might lead to an increase in dropouts.

Lastly, it has said that Education is a policy of the state and the court cannot not issue directions for devising a policy of the state.