NEP will not be accepted if forced on states: West Bengal Education Minister

In the constitution, education is on the concurrent list. It is a delicate subject; if the BJP government tries to take a `Tughlaqi' (whimsical) approach, we won't accept it.

West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu has said that the state government will not accept attempts made by the Central government to force the National Education Policy (NEP) on the state as West Bengal has its own culture and education system. He also warned that since education is on the concurrent list, the central government should not ram its own point of view through the new policy.

In the "constitution, education is on the concurrent list. It is a delicate subject; if the BJP government tries to take a `Tughlaqi' (whimsical) approach, we won't accept it. Wherever we have something to say, we will place our views, and whatever can be accepted, we will accept it. We will move as per directions of our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” he said, as reported by NDTV.

Critics of the NEP have pointed out that stress on teaching all subjects in the mother tongue including in technical institutes as well as stress on the classical language Sanskrit may prove detrimental.

He further said that the state is also mulling to recruit around 15,000 teachers under School Service Commission (SSC).

“There are some legal issues. We are working as per the directions of the Court. Six officers of SSC are regularly hearing complaints and addressing them. We will then submit that list of complaints to the Court. We are hopeful that we can recruit around 15,000 teachers under SSC in the future,” he said.

On July 2020, the New Education Policy (NEP) was approved by the Union Cabinet. Several reform proposals including rationalisation of higher education regulators, funding for private sector research, structural change in school education, establishment of national research foundation, integration of vocational education and coding from upper primary schools, among others were introduced under the new NEP 2020.

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