NEP will not impose Hindi in Tamil Nadu, says Union education minister

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday reiterated that the 2020 National Education Policy will not impose Hindi on states.

The opposition that the plan had elicited in Tamil Nadu was driven by political objectives, Pradhan said.

“NEP 2020 is focussed on different languages of India, be it Hindi, Tamil, Odia, Punjabi,” he told reporters. “All languages have equal importance.”

Pradhan said that in Tamil Nadu, “few are opposing [NEP] because of politics”. “We have never said in NEP 2020 that only Hindi will be there, we have only said that education will be based on mother tongue, in Tamil Nadu, it will be Tamil.”

Political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the state’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, have long opposed attempts to impose Hindi as a third language under the three-language formula.

The three-language policy refers to teaching students English, Hindi and the native language of a state. It was introduced in the first National Education Policy in 1968, and was retained in the new policy from 2020.

The comments by Pradhan came two days after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said that it was unnecessary to force any language as a third language in schools in the age of artificial intelligence.

“Advanced translation technology already removes language barriers instantly,” he said on social media. “Students should not be...

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