Several Opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday accused the government of violating the Constitution by discontinuing funds to the states that have not implemented the National Education Policy and "imposing" Hindi on the states that do not want to follow the three-language formula.
Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan denied the charges and said the Centre was in favour of promoting multilingualism. During the discussion on the functioning of the education ministry, members of the Congress, DMK, CPI, CPM, Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party slammed the Centre for stalling grants under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for not implementing the PM Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI) scheme.
PM-SHRI seeks to develop state schools in every block with advanced facilities but the words "PM-SHRI" must be prefixed with the school name. The Centre and the states, except the hill states, share the funds in a 60:40 ratio.
Last month, Pradhan had criticised the Tamil Nadu government for not implementing the three-language policy. DMK leader Kanimozhi and N.V.N. Somu on Tuesday said the Tamil Nadu government was not against students studying Hindi but would not allow "imposition of Hindi" in the name of the three-language formula. NEP 2020 wants states to follow the three-language formula under which students will study the mother tongue, English and an Indian language decided by the state.
"Tamil Nadu has been following the two-language policy. We never accepted the NEP. Our government only promised to scrutinise the NEP. The MoE has linked funds under the SSA to the implementation of PM-SHRI. The PM-SHRI scheme says provisions of the NEP should be implemented by beneficiary schools. The government has withheld funds under the SSA to Tamil Nadu. This is a direct infringement on the state's autonomy," Somu said.
Trinamool leader Mausam Noor said the condition for prefixing PM-SHRI to state schools was unjustified. "Stopping funds under the SSA citing the state's reluctance to implement PM-SHRI is anti-federal," she said.